Officials in Neola, Iowa, are hoping a $750 reward will crack the case of eight fatal dog poisonings that have occurred over the last 18 months, according to The Daily Nonpareil from Council Bluffs, Iowa.
The most recent incident occurred last month when a 13-month-old Labrador Retriever was fed poisoned meat while in his kennel on his owner’s property. Although the county’s Animal Control Supervisor Stacey Robertson did not disclose the type of poison used, he told the The Daily Nonpareil that the toxin screening revealed it was a highly lethal substance, and added that the investigation is at a dead end.
Dogs who have been poisoned range from those confined in kennels to dogs who were roaming free.
“Some of the dogs were at-large and coming home and dying,” Robertson told The Daily Nonpareil. “We don’t know where they were picking up the [meat] bait, if that’s what was used.”
The city of Neola has a population of 845 and sits on the western border of the state, 25 miles east of Omaha, Neb.