Pet dog killed by the poisoner living next door
... who was caught trying to delete the evidence on neighbour’s CCTV
AFTER throwing poisoned meat over the fence in an attempt to kill her neighbour’s dogs, susan Foster realised the evil act had been caught on his security camera.
so late at night, with neighbour Colin stark, 65, and his wife in bed and their dog dying in the house, she climbed up a ladder to steal the camera.
But Foster’s act of sabotage backfired. The camera had a motion sensor and sent an alarm to Mr stark’s phone at 11.45pm.
Mr stark looked at footage on his phone and saw the hand and then the face of his 60-year-old neighbour removing the camera.
so he promptly marched over to her house, banged on the windows and demanded: ‘Give me my camera back.’ Mr stark recalled yesterday: ‘My voice was quite loud, because i was really annoyed, and my wife said, “You need to stop shouting, just pack it in and call the police.”
‘But within 30 seconds of her saying that, she came out with the camera, and a few words were then spoken to one another.’
By the time the couple repossessed the camera, their nine-yearold German shepherd, Roxy, was seriously ill from eating meat which had been laced with anti-freeze.
The starks took the dog to the vet, along with samples of the meat. But after four days in terrible pain and vomiting, Roxy was put down.
Mr stark, of scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, said he then reviewed footage from the night when Roxy was poisoned and found footage of meat being thrown over his 6ft garden fence.
He said: ‘On my laptop, i could see something is coming over. i thought “was that a bird or something?” Then i played it back slower, and you could see it was things being thrown over the fence.’ Foster was reported to the RsPCA and prosecuted.
she appeared before Grimsby Magistrates’ Court and was convicted of causing a poisonous substance to be taken by a protected animal in june last year.
Foster was given a suspended 26-week prison sentence, disqualified from keeping all animals for 12 months, ordered to pay £2,040 in court costs, £627 compensation to Roxy’s owners and a £120 victim surcharge.
Mr stark said he and his wife were heartbroken at the loss of their beloved dog and believe the sentence was too lenient.
He said: ‘We’ve got two dogs, and she wasn’t just trying to get rid of one of them, she was trying to get rid of both of them.’
Even more baffling is the lack of motive. Foster owned a cat and Mr stark said they hadn’t argued or had a problem with each other. she has since sold her bungalow and moved, he added.
‘in the beginning, we used to talk and say good morning,’ he said. ‘As the months and years wore on, we didn’t really speak. she kept herself to herself. she stayed at home and didn’t work.
‘There was no mention of motivation. Even in court she said there was no dogs barking.’
An RsPCA spokesman said: ‘This was an incredibly sad case – Roxy was a beloved pet and her owners were heartbroken by their loss.
‘This act caused Roxy an immense amount of pain and suffering, and deteriorating clinical signs meant this poor dog ended up losing her life as a result.’
‘No mention of a motive’