Woman loses pet to poisoning

A Carson City woman said Thursday she is shocked and frightened by the poisoning of her dog.

Christine Johnson said she first noticed something was wrong with her Sheltie, Tartan, when he was rolling around on the lawn in her yard Sunday.

"About 20 minutes later he was still rolling around," she said. "I thought he hurt his back."

She said when she went outside to investigate, she put Tartan on the patio. "He was really thirsty," she said. "I gave him some water and he started going into convulsions."

Her neighbors in the Silver Oak subdivision heard her screaming and came to help.

"My neighbors came over and they tried to get him to the vet in time," she said. "It was so bad that he would have never survived."

After the incident, Johnson said she found hot dogs that had been painted with an unknown substance in her back yard. The yard has a six-foot fence.

"We don't eat hot dogs so there is no way he could have pulled them out of the garbage," she said. "When I saw them it all became clear to me."

The poisoning came as a shock to Johnson, who said she does not know why someone would want to hurt Tartan.

"He wasn't a barker, he wasn't a digger and he wasn't a biter," she said. "He stayed in our yard with his Teddy bear."

Johnson fears that the perpetrator may want to hurt her family.

"It's the act I'm concerned with," she said. "If this was a random poisoning, I can get past that. What if somebody's angry at us and this is a threat or something?"

Animal Control Services and the Carson City Sheriff's Department were notified of the incident.

Tracy Edgar, Animal Control Services manager, said a report was taken, but there are no suspects.

"It's one of those cases where we are a dead end before we start," she said. "Unfortunately, it is hard to test for poison when you don't know what poison to test for."

Edgar said she is waiting to review the veterinarian's notes before taking the case further and determining if the incident was poisoning. "The case is still open," she said.

Animal-related crimes are investigated by animal control and prosecuted through the District Attorney's Office.