My hunter husband, who’s very responsible and has a wonderful relationship with the countryside and its animals, was out walking his dogs one day. The hunting season was closed but the truffle season was open, and at a certain point he realized that his favourite dog (she was his oldest one at the time) wasn’t following him . He called and called and whistled and whistled and she never arrived. What happens is that a dog will go into hiding to die; it’s not always a quick death but the animal instinctively goes under a bush or hides somewhere. My husband came home for lunch, put the other dogs in their pens, and then went back to the woods immediately to the place he’d last seen her. Not a trace. He was out searching for her dead body by that time, as he knew perfectly well what had happened, but with no luck.
That evening he gave me a notice to print off and laminate (I have the machine) warning other dog owners of the danger, and addressing himself directly to the person who was leaving the poison, pointing out that ANY dog was worth more in affection, intelligence and humanity than he could ever hope to be. He went back the next day with a hammer and nails and pinned 8 or 10 warnings to trees, in the area that his dog had last been seen.
A couple of times poisoned meatballs have been thrown into his dogs’ pens. They’re on a quite main road and it would be easy for someone to toss them from a slow-moving car. One dog was saved by the vet with a stomach pump, but was weakened by the experience and died a ‘natural death’ maybe 3 or 4 years later in the prime of life. I think 2 other dogs were killed outright, and were found the next day dead in their pens. I seem to remember rat poison being talked about, but wouldn’t swear to it, and it was probably one of many hypotheses.
These things are taken by hunters as being run of the mill. They’re upset and angry, and often lose dogs they’ve spent a long time training, and they know them very well, and are extremely fond of them even if they don’t live in the house or are part of the family. But, they don’t do anything about it!! If someone poisons your dogs it’s because they’re jealous of your hunting abilities and want to have more of a look in on the local fauna, so it can be seen as a ‘compliment’. My husband didn’t take it that way, but he didn’t make an official complaint contro ignoti either…
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