Shelters do important and inspiring work, taking in homeless animals and helping them find homes. It’s hard to imagine one being the target of a vicious attack — but there are just some cruel people in the world.
Recently, one animal rescue was left shaken after they found clumps of rat poison in their yard, apparently left by someone intending to poison their dogs.
On July 29, Vintage Pet Rescue, a Rhode Island-based nonprofit that specializes in senior dogs, announced that they had been the victim of a “super upsetting and anger-inducing” incident.
They wrote that they had found multiple large pieces of rat poison left on top of their fences, apparently intended to fall into the yard where the rescue dogs would find and eat them.
“I saw this chunk outside the front door, just a weird red thing on our fence. And I was just like, ‘What is that?’” rescue founder Kristien Peralta recalled to People. She realized it was rat poison after noticing one of the pieces was labeled.
One of their dogs, Bug, unfortunately ate a large piece of the rat poison. Staff induced vomiting and he received urgent veterinary care. Though he had to be on medication for 3 weeks, he is going to be okay.
Volunteers searched the area to clear any poison left behind. Peralta said that they found “seven big chunks” in total.
“I can’t put into words how upset we are over this. Who would do this to a senior dog rescue? We’re honestly blown away by this level of evil,” Vintage Pet Rescue wrote on Facebook
Unfortunately, they had no leads on who could have done this. They had two outdoor security cameras installed, but they only capture live feed, so the culprit was not caught on camera. The rescue filed a police report and consulted neighbors, who were reportedly “horrified” but had no information to offer.
While they still don’t fully understand the motive for the attack, Vintage Pet Rescue has been focusing on preventing anything like this from happening again. They have installed an updated security camera system, as well as floodlights.
The incident has left many staff members on guard. “Before, I would let the dogs out whenever they wanted to go out, and I’d just watch them,” Peralta told People. “But now, I’ll go out and walk around first. I’m always watching. When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is check the cameras to see if there was any overnight activity. It’s definitely spooked me.”
However, they aren’t letting the attack keep them from their mission of helping senior dogs.
Animal shelters have enough to deal with these days, it’s sad that they now have to worry about people poisoning their dogs 😢🤬 We’re just glad the dogs are all okay and hope this will never happen again.
