# Is anyone worried about tainted/poisoned meat?



## Noodlesmadison (Sep 18, 2011)

I live in NYC, where the cat colony I feed gets poisoned once a year or more and people throw poisoned meat into the dog parks because they hate dogs. :tsk: 

I worry about getting free meat from somebody online - ones that know it's for an animal. What if they poisoned it? Would you be able to tell?

I must sound nuts, but I see and hear about this all the time here.


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

Well, I have had two dogs poisoned - one was the family boxer when I was three (so I guess technically she wasn't my dog) and my Doberman when I was 20, by a neighbor who was very angry at me for taking his hound dog into the vet when the dog got a bunch of porcupine quills and he wanted to teach his dog a lesson. That was rat poison.

so yes, i worry about it. i would never get meat from anyone other than a store or someone I know.


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## JayJayisme (Aug 2, 2009)

Yeah, I worry about it. I live in a nut farm called Los Angeles, so I don't even bother seeking out free meat. I don't even trust my idiot neighbors, some of whom are so obnoxious and rude that I periodically have conflicts with them over their noise and other disturbances. I live in a upscale townhome community but my back yard is directly adjacent to four of my neighbor's yards (surrounded on three sides). Two of them I'm totally friendly with, two of them not so much in spite of all the attempts I've made at diplomacy. I dread the day one of these pricks decides to take out their revenge by feeding poison meatballs to my dogs. People here are self-absorbed a-holes and I wouldn't put it past some of them. We're looking to move though so hopefully we'll be out of here before things get that bad.


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## Noodlesmadison (Sep 18, 2011)

xellil said:


> Well, I have had two dogs poisoned - one was the family boxer when I was three (so I guess technically she wasn't my dog) and my Doberman when I was 20, by a neighbor who was very angry at me for taking his hound dog into the vet when the dog got a bunch of porcupine quills and he wanted to teach his dog a lesson. That was rat poison.
> 
> so yes, i worry about it. i would never get meat from anyone other than a store or someone I know.


Oh no, I am so sorry :frown: That's terrible!


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## Noodlesmadison (Sep 18, 2011)

JayJayisme said:


> Yeah, I worry about it. I live in a nut farm called Los Angeles, so I don't even bother seeking out free meat. I don't even trust my idiot neighbors, some of whom are so obnoxious and rude that I periodically have conflicts with them over their noise and other disturbances. I live in a upscale townhome community but my back yard is directly adjacent to four of my neighbor's yards (surrounded on three sides). Two of them I'm totally friendly with, two of them not so much in spite of all the attempts I've made at diplomacy. I dread the day one of these pricks decides to take out their revenge by feeding poison meatballs to my dogs. People here are self-absorbed a-holes and I wouldn't put it past some of them. We're looking to move though so hopefully we'll be out of here before things get that bad.


Ack, I do know how you feel though - living in such close quarters with terrible ghetto people here.
I am happy I am not being paranoid, however. I felt alone in this worry!


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## Tobi (Mar 18, 2011)

i've gotten a few hundred pounds of free meat since raw feeding Tobi, I worry to an extent, but I go to these peoples houses to pick this stuff up. worst case scenario i don't feel comfortable feeding it and i toss it... to date i've not thrown any out. 
I know where they live, that counts for something... they poison my dog, they will be in worse shape


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## whiteleo (Sep 7, 2008)

I don't feel comfortable asking for free stuff whether it is meat or anything else online. Too many weird and strange people and I would never put my dogs in harms way. A lot of people here have no problem getting the stuff and haven't had issues, but I'd be the one to not be so lucky!


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

I agree with Tobi. Except we've gotten thousands of pounds from people we don't know, but like he said we go to their house to pick it up. Usually they are hunters with their own dogs, or people with dogs. Plus we usually get to chatting with them which gives us the opportunity to get a feel for them. I'm sure there are people in my area who are capable of being terrible and cruel to a dog. But I just don't worry too much about it. 

My family dog Kodi was poisoned at two years old by eating a hot dog laced with antifreeze. He died a week later, but we knew who did it. Was a neighbor. I think if I had craptastic neighbors, I wouldn't let my dogs near them especially when unattended like Kodi was allowed to do.


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

I have worked with Rebel on not taking meat from a stranger (hey, I read Lassie!) and he's good about it when I'm around, but I wouldn't trust my training if someone was dangling a juicy piece of steak over the fence. Just another reason I don't leave them in the yard. there's no training Snorkels - she would take anything from anyone.

When our boxer got poisoned, there was someone driving through town throwing poisoned meat into yards - they killed 8 dogs.

And the second dog was poisoned by someone I knew. He later died a long and painful death from cancer and I feel happy that about. Eating rat poison is a horrible way to die. It may be why I feel a desire to give Dobermans a good life now, because I failed to protect my first one.

I think there is probably 1 in a million chance of actually getting poisoned meat from someone. When we go back to Texas soon, I will be able to hunt my own game, or get it from neighbors. So we'll have alot more variety for free from trusted sources, thank goodness - I just wrote a check for $188 to My Pet Carnivore and I won't have a job soon.


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## swolek (Mar 31, 2011)

I worry about that, too. I also had a dog poisoned by a dog-hating neighbor. They must have thrown the meat into the dog run when we weren't home as he was never left outside unattended or anything (mostly because of this neighbor...). It was such a traumatizing experience for me that I just can't bring myself to trust people. I have gotten free meat from people I know, though.


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## shellbell (Sep 24, 2011)

I would be leary about getting meat from someone I didn't know...I am most paranoid when it comes to my dogs.


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## Scarlett_O' (May 19, 2011)

Not really, because as David and Natalie said...I go to their houses to pick up. 
Most of my adds dont state why I want the meat, they generally ask in their emails to me...but a couple havent.


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## cprcheetah (Jul 14, 2010)

My chihuahua Sebastian died because my neighbors little boy poisoned him.  Yes I do worry about tainted meat, but like many of the others when I get 'free' meat, I go to their houses, and get a feel for them, I have thrown away some meat that the people just didn't seem 'right', I got a bad feeling about it so I tossed about 30# of meat that day because I wasn't willing to take a chance.


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## whiteleo (Sep 7, 2008)

Boy, Look how many dogs alone were poisoned just with people from this forum, that's a chance I just won't take with my dogs. What are those odds?


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## MollyWoppy (Mar 19, 2010)

Boy, thats a real eye opener, I had absolutely no idea there are that many scewed in the head people in the world who'd actually hate a dog enough to poison it. And, I'm shocked at how many people here have had a dog or cat poisoned, thats just horrible. Maybe I need to be a little less trusting of people.


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

whiteleo said:


> Boy, Look how many dogs alone were poisoned just with people from this forum, that's a chance I just won't take with my dogs. What are those odds?


I'm a little surprised myself. Dang.


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## cprcheetah (Jul 14, 2010)

MollyWoppy said:


> Boy, thats a real eye opener, I had absolutely no idea there are that many scewed in the head people in the world who'd actually hate a dog enough to poison it. And, I'm shocked at how many people here have had a dog or cat poisoned, thats just horrible. Maybe I need to be a little less trusting of people.


Scary huh? Mine was poisoned by my neighbors 10-11 year old son because I caught him trespassing in my yard SEVERAL times, we have a 6 foot vinyl fence that he kept climbing. So I told him that I would call the cops the next time I found him in my yard, wasn't even a week later that Sebastian found some decon by my back fence.....and so we called cops etc, and they couldn't prove anything but that night after cops were here/there I sure heard screaming coming through the walls.


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

I know when my dog was poisoned, my husband had to quit his job and move us away because I spent so much time planning how i was going to murder the fellow. I'm not sure I wouldn't have done it had we stayed.


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## monkeys23 (Dec 8, 2010)

On of my cats was poisoned when I was a kid. I think someone did it on purpose, but my parent's spared me the details.... I'm pretty sure they knew who did it though. It was AWFUL. And he was a non-tom catty tomcat. I swear that cat was gay. He always stayed home, never wandered, just as mellow as could be. He was a tuxedo manx.

The scary part? We lived on 15 acres bordering BLM with no neighbors in sight at that time...


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## MollyWoppy (Mar 19, 2010)

xellil said:


> I know when my dog was poisoned, my husband had to quit his job and move us away because I spent so much time planning how i was going to murder the fellow. I'm not sure I wouldn't have done it had we stayed.


I get you. If someone dared to poison Mollie, I swear they'd find him/her face down in the canal the next morning. Mark my words.


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## Nootherids (Sep 22, 2011)

My wife has always accused me of being too naive of the evils that people are capable of. I'm reading this thread with my jaw dropped. I had never even conceived that any person could potentially do something like this. I'm still shocked.


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## Dude and Bucks Mamma (May 14, 2011)

MollyWoppy said:


> I get you. If someone dared to poison Mollie, I swear they'd find him/her face down in the canal the next morning. Mark my words.


I'm the same way. I have disowned friends for INSULTING my dogs. Well... only when my dogs don't deserve it. I don't mind someone calling Buck obnoxious or something... because it's true... but we had a friend who appeared to love Dude more than his own obnoxious, untrained dog but when he got around his friends when we all went camping, he apparently told everyone in his car how awful Dude is while we were all caravanning up to the campsite. One of our good friends was in his car and was like, "Hey, just thought you guys should know *friend's name here* is saying *this and that* about Dude. Abi can confirm that Dude is the ever perfect gentleman. Dude is not an unruly dog. You don't call my Dude names or say false things about him just to be spiteful without hearing from me about it. My husband is just as bad. This was back in January. Other than work my husband refuses to socialize with this "ex-friend". 

Sorry for the rant...

Anyhow, we have only gotten free or really cheap meat from 2 sources. Occasionally from Abi when she gets too much for her freezers and from a farmer out in Port Orchard. He is a great guy who loves dogs and raises his own meat. He lets us know when he is slaughtering and we get great deals from him on meat from previous years. He sold us a ton of meat (organs, meat, and bones) for $1/lb and a TON of soup bones for $.50 EACH! There was a ton of meat on them. After the bones were cut out we had about 2 1/2+ lbs from each one. I trust this guy because I have gotten to know him. I have seen the animals my dogs are eating and I feel comfortable with him. Would I trust meat from just anybody? Heck no! I have to get to know my sources before I trust their meat.

And I am so sorry to those of you who have had to go through losing an animal to psycho neighbors. That's terrible.


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## Scarlett_O' (May 19, 2011)

Dude and Bucks Mamma said:


> I'm the same way. I have disowned friends for INSULTING my dogs. Well... only when my dogs don't deserve it. I don't mind someone calling Buck obnoxious or something... because it's true... but we had a friend who appeared to love Dude more than his own obnoxious, untrained dog but when he got around his friends when we all went camping, he apparently told everyone in his car how awful Dude is while we were all caravanning up to the campsite. One of our good friends was in his car and was like, "Hey, just thought you guys should know *friend's name here* is saying *this and that* about Dude. Abi can confirm that Dude is the ever perfect gentleman. Dude is not an unruly dog. You don't call my Dude names or say false things about him just to be spiteful without hearing from me about it. My husband is just as bad. This was back in January. Other than work my husband refuses to socialize with this "ex-friend".
> 
> Sorry for the rant...
> 
> ...


Yaaa......but the thing is your dont have to worry about humans tainting your meat.........you just have to watch out for what Dude with sneak into Buck's food!!!:lol:


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## minnieme (Jul 6, 2011)

Nootherids said:


> My wife has always accused me of being too naive of the evils that people are capable of. I'm reading this thread with my jaw dropped. I had never even conceived that any person could potentially do something like this. I'm still shocked.


I agree. How awful. This just further solidifies in my mind that when we do get our nice big yard, I'll be diligently scoping out our neighbors and their reactions to our dog(s) (oh yes, we will have 2 some day! :wink: ). I cannot believe how evil people can be.


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

whiteleo said:


> Boy, Look how many dogs alone were poisoned just with people from this forum, that's a chance I just won't take with my dogs. What are those odds?


Yes, its terrible. But there seems to be a recurring theme in that pets who have been poisoned mentioned in this thread was done by neighbors or someone they knew, save for xelil's story. 

So, to me the moral of this story is to make friends with your neighbors and set up good relationships with them! Because I know what its like to lose a pet to some hateful piece of pond scum.


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## swolek (Mar 31, 2011)

DaneMama said:


> So, to me the moral of this story is to make friends with your neighbors and set up good relationships with them!


Unless they just hate everyone and most animals for no reason.


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## Noodlesmadison (Sep 18, 2011)

This is so sad  I didn't realize it was so common everywhere else, not to this extent. It's shocking that people could do this that much


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

swolek said:


> Unless they just hate everyone and most animals for no reason.


True but that isn't something to focus on because it's out of your control. How are you to know these things other than interviewing all your potential neighbors? What if they just lie initially as to convince you they're great? 

Honestly I don't waste my time thinking about these things. Good people far outweigh bad ones so I try to keep in mind that if I stay positive I will attract more positive people.


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## Caty M (Aug 13, 2010)

Life With Dogs – RMCP on the Hunt for Alberta

There's someone murdering dogs in Alberta.... like 13-14 died IN ONE NIGHT from tainted meat. I read in the paper a woman found a piece of pepperoni in her yard and knowing what was happening, called the police and it was laced with strychnine.

I wouldn't be too worried about free meat. As everyone says you know where they live... and you know what kind of person they are by reading them.

I had a childhood cat poisoned but it was accidental.


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## swolek (Mar 31, 2011)

DaneMama said:


> True but that isn't something to focus on because it's out of your control. How are you to know these things other than interviewing all your potential neighbors? What if they just lie initially as to convince you they're great?
> 
> Honestly I don't waste my time thinking about these things. Good people far outweigh bad ones so I try to keep in mind that if I stay positive I will attract more positive people.


I meant this in response to there being a "moral" to the lesson. Knowing your neighbors doesn't necessarily matter.

Maybe it rubbed me the wrong way because it sounded like people who had pets poisoned should have interviewed neighbors better or something. I'm guessing that's not how you meant it, it's just what it sounded like.


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## twotonelover (Jan 10, 2011)

Nah, I'm not worried. I've gotten quite a few things off of craigslist, and haven't had anything suspicious. I generally throw out anything that isn't in the original packaging anyway.


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