Poisoned again – Why won’t police investigate?
Must a child get ill or even killed by hugging their poisoned or dead dog?
Hi, everyone. It happened again. Today, my beautiful German Shepherd was poisoned, for the second time.
During 2014 I had to rush my dog to the veterinary clinic, where treatment for poisoning was administered by the veterinarian. He told me that three other cases of poisoning had been reported in my residential area.
I then collected stool and fluid samples in order to determine the exact composition of the poison. I knew it was a two-step process, but believed that a toxicology report would be able to identify its composition. This could be used to link anyone arrested on suspicion of animal poisoning with other reported cases.
I am a police detective, but not stationed at Randfontein where I opened a case of “Malicious damage to property” in September 2014. Within two days I was contacted by the investigating officer, who informed me that the case had been taken to court and declared “Nolle Prosequi” – a Latin phrase meaning that it would no longer be prosecuted.
I found this strange as no case can be closed off while a toxicology report is outstanding. The case should have been postponed and a date scheduled for later assessment. This behaviour indicated that the detectives were not willing to investigate the matter any further.
My family and I did not only suffer financial loss, we also went through emotional torment watching our beloved pet suffering.
The next few weeks were very stressful too, as we expected a robbery or break-in to follow.
Needless to say, I never heard from the detectives again.
Today it happened again – again I rushed our dog to the vet, reliving all the emotions we’d been through before. I wonder what it will take for the police to address this problem? I don’t mean to “cook the stats” but really address it. Must a child fall ill or be killed by hugging a poisoned or dead pet (the poison is still active in the bodily fluids after death) or eating a missed ‘two-step dosed’ treat that was meant for the dog?
I am happy to report that my dog recovered and has been back home since 9 May.
