Rancho Santa Fe
A 40-year-old woman was charged Wednesday with two misdemeanor counts for allegedly poisoning a neighbor’s dog.
Barbara Mae Goldstein, a teacher and travel agent, was charged with using strychnine to kill a 6-year-old German shepherd owned by her neighbor, Benjamin Stillwell, a forensic pathologist. She is to be arraigned in Vista Municipal Court on Sept. 9.
Goldstein is charged with killing the animal of another person and putting out a poisonous substance. The first charge carries a maximum one year in jail and a $2,000 fine, and the second has a maximum six months in jail and $1,000 fine.
The district attorney’s office alleges that Goldstein put the strychnine inside a piece of meat. A necropsy done by the county veterinarian confirmed that the dog died May 19 of strychnine poisoning, according to a spokesman for the San Diego Humane Society.
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