Costa Mesa Neighbors, Police Gathering Evidence : Poisonings Suspected in Deaths of Dozen Pets

It started with the sudden and violent death of Connie Patania’s dog, Wendy.

“She started barking at the air,” Patania, a resident of Senate Street in Costa Mesa, said. “Then she started foaming at the mouth,” became disoriented and went into seizures.

In less than half an hour on April 20, Wendy died, the victim of what Patania and other neighbors believe was intentional poisoning.

By mid-May, at least a dozen other pets had died in a similar way, she said, causing residents of Senate and Capitol streets to believe that someone had targeted their pets for extermination. Neighbors continue to gather evidence for an ongoing police investigation.

Three weeks after Wendy’s death, the puppy of one of Patania’s roommates died in an almost identical way. A veterinarian found a piece of meat in her stomach, but Patania said they never fed their pets meat.

A description of Wendy’s death led Dr. Richard Thomas, director of the UCI Regional Poison Center, to believe it had been caused by strychnine, a deadly poison.

“They all died in the morning,” Patania said, “so they had to be poisoned at night.” Teresa Engleman, who lost two cats, said all the pets have died in a 10-house radius.

As part of their investigation, police paid for a necropsy, an animal autopsy, on a cat found dead in another part of the city on Sunday, but results showed the cat had died of a liver infection, said Lt. Rick Johnson.

Michael Cross, who has eight cats and lost two others in the recent rash of deaths, said he knows of three residents who have received threatening notes demanding that pets be kept indoors.

Patania said she does not know who has received notes, but has learned that the notes threatened pets with physical harm if their owners did not keep them quiet.

Cross said that some residents have complained about noisy cats during mating season and that others have admitted that their dogs wander through yards, damaging plants.

However, the pets of those who had received the notes are still alive and well, Patania said.

Although no other pet deaths have been reported since mid-May, Cross and others said they are still worried about their pets and children, who may also come in contact with concealed poison.

“What was so frightening was that some pets were being poisoned in their own yards,” Engleman said. “I didn’t let (my pets) out for three or four weeks.”

Patania said “lots of toddlers,” including her roommate’s, live and play in the neighborhood, and she estimates that 80% to 90% of all homes have pets.

Some residents whose pets died said they would like to have had necropsies performed but couldn’t afford the cost of $200 or more.

Depending on the circumstances, intentional poisoning of pets can be a misdemeanor or a felony, punishable with a fine of up to $20,000 or a jail term or both, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.

When a group of 40 or 50 area residents met at a local school May 21, police began an investigation. When Patania took a poll of those attending, 11 people said they had lost at least one pet, she said.

But not all who lost pets were in attendance. Cross, for example, said he lost two cats, Razzle and Pixy, within two weeks. Cross said he witnessed Pixy’s seizures and death. “There was nothing I could do.”

Costa Mesa police are still investigating, but no other pets in the neighborhood have reportedly died in that manner.

Lack of Clues Stymie Police

So far, police say they have no leads.

“We really don’t have a lot to go on,” Johnson said. Lt. George Lorton, supervisor of the city’s animal control services, said he has no proof that the deaths actually resulted from poisoning. He added that even if the pets died of poisoning, it may have been an accident.

“This is the time of year when people put out snail poison,” he said.

But Thomas of the UCI poison center said an animal would have to take a large amount of that poison to die from it.

Some have complained that authorities were too slow to respond.

“They could have gotten on it sooner,” Engleman said, referring to the police investigation that began after the residents’ meeting.

Broke Down in Tears

Patania and two others went to a City Council meeting June 2 to call attention to the problem. Patania said she broke down in tears as she addressed the council.

“They want this thing to go away,” Patania said. “I guess it’s not important to them. But I’m not going to let them sweep it under the rug.”

“It won’t be swept under the rug,” Councilman Dave Wheeler said. “Every member of the council” is concerned about the incidents, he said.

When 3-year-old Wendy died, Patania said: “I was devastated. She was my best friend. We went to the East Coast together.”