It's unbelievable someone would poison pets over a neighbor dispute, no matter how severe--but the man Concord (CA) police say is responsible for strychnine-laced meatballs in poisoning neighbors' dogs is unreal: Accused killer Earl Ansley's a cop, a former California police officer himself.
Just one month ago in June 2011, a woman discovered her Scottish terrier experiencing seizures and called 911 with the dog in critical condition -- the pet dying the same day after a vet visit that couldn't help the poisoned dog. Calling police after finding a meatball, the woman immediately searched her property -- but apparently missed hidden food that was additionally laced with strychnine. Just days later, the owner’s second dog died from ingesting a laced meatball.
The Concord woman whose dog was killed by a neighbor had lost her daughter in a fatal car crash. The dog -- allegedly poisoned by a California police officer -- belonged to her daughter.
After the dog began having seizures, the woman says she found four meatballs in her yard. She'd received three threatening letters earlier in the year about her dogs. Cops believe the pet killer lives just one block away and gained access -- to deliver the poisoned meatballs -- by cutting through a neighbor's yard.
In fact police think a similar incident, where a dog was previously killed in the same neighborhood over seven years ago in 2003, is linked. In that case, a series of threatening letters was alo received by another Concord dog owner.
72-year-old Concord resident and former cop, Earl Ansley, has been arrested but already released pending return of toxicology reports and computer forensics slated for return to law enforcement. The case will most likely go to the District Attorney for possible prosecution of criminal charges against former police officer Earl Ansley -- who may be facing charges for willful cruelty to animals.
The Concord woman's wish, if the cop in fact proves the killer of her pets: that she gets "to cook meatballs in strychnine and shove them down his throat." The dog owner's desire may be more than understandable to pet owners nationwide: Unlike murdering a human, the California police officer faces only animal cruelty charges -- if legally charged at all in the alleged crimes.