A message from St. Paul police, telling people to be on the lookout for bread in their yards after dogs have been poisoned, may have worked too well. Police received 23 reports over the weekend.
It was unknown whether any of the bread contained poison, said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a St. Paul police spokesman.
“I don’t want to downplay people’s concerns, but I think we are recovering a lot of bread that may not pertain to animal poisoning,” Ernster said Wednesday.
Over the summer, eight dogs in a four-block radius fell ill after apparently eating biscuits laced with rat poison pellets that had been left in their yards. Three later died — though at least one appeared to perish, in part, from unrelated health issues.
Last Thursday, a man found ripped-up pieces of bread next to his dog’s bowl in his yard in the 1200 block of Minnehaha Avenue, in the same area as the cases over the summer. His dog had not eaten it, but he noted his next-door neighbor told him bread had also appeared next to her dog’s bowl.
On Friday, the police department’s Western District posted on Facebook, saying people should call police if they find bread in their yards with what is believed to be poison on them meant for their dogs.
The general area of concern has been from Pierce Butler Route to University Avenue, and Hamline Avenue and Dale Street, Ernster said. Police are still asking people to report suspicious food items found in yards where animals typically reside to 651-291-1111.
On Friday, St. Paul police received a report of a dog that was apparently sickened by poisoning in another neighborhood. The circumstances were different than the bread cases, which occurred in people’s yards, and it was unknown if it was related.
A woman reported she was walking her dog on Dec. 27 when it ate an unknown object in the area of Cleveland and Itasca avenues. The dog was lethargic the next day and the owner took the dog to the vet, who determined the pet had internal bleeding and believed it had been poisoned, Ernster said.