Dogs’ Deaths in Santa Ana Neighborhood Blamed on Poison

Five dogs in a Santa Ana neighborhood have died since last week--apparently from poisoning--prompting residents and the city to post warning notices.

“Right now, everybody’s scared; they don’t know what’s going on,” said Felipe Sanchez, 36, whose Chihuahua and its 5-month-old puppy died Saturday. “Everybody around here has cats and dogs.”

The five dogs belonged to three families on South Ross Street.

Jerry Ayres, supervisor of the Santa Ana Police Department’s animal control office, said city workers will post flyers around Sandpoint Park warning that it is illegal to put out poisoned meat and advising pet owners to keep dogs in yards.

Sanchez said he “found a very juicy chunk of meat mixed with grass” in his back yard after the veterinarian examined his two sick dogs and suggested that he look for evidence of poisoning.

That evening, the veterinarian called them to pick up their dogs, but by the time they arrived, the mother dog had died. Within a half hour of their return home, the puppy went into convulsions in their 10-year-old daughter’s arms, dying soon after.

“I considered them my kids,” Sanchez said.

After the $537 veterinarian bill, Sanchez said, he could not afford the $250 to have the meat analyzed.

Sanchez’s neighbor, James Walker, 35, was alarmed enough to take two days off work to build a higher fence, add more shrubbery and put in a $500 burglar alarm system.

“I’m concerned and angry at the same time,” said Walker, who keeps his German shepherd in the house all day and now keeps a muzzle on him.

Sanchez and Walker have posted warning flyers on their own on lampposts, doors and trees.

“Now we bolt everything, and we sleep with one eye open, almost,” said Mary Jimenez, 41, whose 7-year-old Pomeranian, missing since last Thursday, was found dead in her garden Saturday night.

Her husband, Gabe, 41, had searched for the dog at the city animal shelter and had driven around the neighborhood before finding a warning flyer that Walker put in his screen door.

The Jimenezes rechecked the back yard and found the dog’s body.

“We all cried. It kind of makes you feel you don’t want to have any more pets because you don’t know what will happen. . . . And my 15-month-old grandson (who lives with them) puts everything in his mouth,” so they keep him out of the back yard, said Gabe Jimenez, a 15-year Ross Street resident.

“The police told us somebody might be setting up for a robbery,” said Gabe, who now keeps his surviving dog, a Yorkshire terrier, locked in the garage at night.

The deaths of the dogs began Feb. 16, when Karen Templeton lost her cockapoo and golden Labrador retriever after they vomited and became paralyzed. She later discovered a pile of “deli-type” food in her yard.

Ayres said someone in the neighborhood might be putting poison out at their homes, since most of the dogs killed had been allowed to run loose during the day. Or they might have eaten poison intended for rats or opossums, he said.

Ayres said similar warning notices were posted in the same neighborhood about a year ago when a woman reported that several dead cats turned up on her driveway and front lawn. How they died was never determined.