Note on Dog’s Death : Poison Pen Letter Draws Libel Suit

A court will soon referee a Woodland Hills neighborhood dispute that is said to have started with a poisoned dog and led to a poison pen.

A physician has filed a libel suit against a woman who lives across the street, alleging that she has falsely accused him of killing her dog. He claims the accusation was made in letters she circulated along their block.

The case, scheduled for a hearing Feb. 20, pits Dr. Louis S. Lyons, chief of anesthesiology at the Motion Picture & Television Fund Hospital in Calabasas, against Rayanne Moore, a writer. She says she still grieves for her dead dog, a featured character in her most recent romance novel.

Moore contends that she wrote her two letters last September as a warning to other neighborhood pet owners after she became convinced that her dog was killed by a poisoner.

The squabble on Baza Avenue has caused residents of the quiet neighborhood of single-family homes, nestled in a valley south of Ventura Boulevard, to begin choosing sides.

Lyons and Moore agree that the dispute began last summer after Lyons, 60, approached Moore, 39, to complain about her two barking dogs. In documents submitted in their court case, Moore says that Lyons’ parting words were, “We’ll just see what can be done about that barking.”

Less than a month later, she said, her 6-year-old Doberman pinscher named Sandman died in her arms after going into convulsions. Although she did not want the animal “cut up” for an autopsy, she recognized the poisoning symptoms from volunteer work in the Los Angeles Zoo’s reptile house, she said. Poisonous snakes in the reptile house are fed live animals.

Because several other neighborhood dogs had been poisoned up the street a few years earlier, Moore said she decided to alert about seven neighbors who she knew had pets.

In her letter, Moore stated, “We seem to have a pet poisoner in the neighborhood once again. I have no idea who this heartless monster could be, but I feel you should all be warned to watch your pets closely.”

Although Moore’s letter did not use Lyons’ name, it described the physician and listed his house address. It also described their earlier encounter over barking.

Lyons, who said he has lived off and on in the neighborhood for about six years, said he was stunned when he found one of the letters tucked in the mailbox of a vacationing neighbor, whose home he was watching at the time.

He promptly sat down and wrote a rebuttal letter that denied any involvement in the dog’s death and solicited “moral support” from neighbors.

“I have no need to resort to violence on innocent animals,” he wrote in his letter. “But I do have every right to confront a dog owner to protest excessive noise. . . . I don’t understand why she has exposed me to the undeserved wrath of the area’s pet owners with her ugly accusations.”

Lyons said he distributed it the next day to about 15 homes.

After Lyons’ signed letter hit the street, Moore wrote another one, which is now one of the key exhibits in the court case. It suggested that “the good doctor” purposely hid the fact that he was an anesthesiologist in his letter.

“It’s scary to consider why he withheld that . . . and scarier still to consider what he must know about putting things to sleep,” she wrote.

Again, Moore stated she did not know who killed her dog. But she reported in the new letter that on several occasions before her dog was stricken, a neighbor had seen Lyons sitting in his car next to the path leading to her backyard.

Lyons countered with his lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging that his professional reputation has been harmed. Scheduled for pretrial hearing in Los Angeles, it asks that he be awarded damages of $1.75 million.

Friday, both sides were holding fast to their innocence.

“I didn’t say he killed Sandman. I don’t know who killed Sandman. I just wanted my neighbors with pets to know,” Moore said.

Moore said she suffers from a spinal injury and that Sandman had been trained to pick things up for her as well as be a watchdog. “I don’t have a family. My pets are my family,” she said.

Lyons said, “That one time I talked to her she told me how lucky I was that there were these dogs in the neighborhood to keep burglars away. I didn’t consider myself lucky.”

But Lyons said he would never poison any dog. “It’s outrageous to say I poisoned hers. What else can I say? I’m still outraged. I don’t think this kind of libel can ever be undone.”