AMESTI — When two family dogs died suddenly after convulsing and foaming at the mouth the week before Halloween, Santa Cruz County Animal Control officers grew suspicious of foul play.
Now, with the backing of an up to $5,000 reward from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, authorities are asking for the public’s help in identifying the potential poisoner behind the deaths of Bruno and Luna.
The Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter was alerted to the dogs’ back-to-back deaths in late October. The dogs’ owners, residents of Primrose Lane north of Watsonville, told authorities that Luna and Bruno, their German shepherds, had barked in alarm while looking toward their backyard late on the night of Oct. 25. After the dogs went outside the next morning, Bruno showed signs of poisoning and had died, seizing in the arms of one of the family’s children by 8 a.m., according to information provided to PETA by Animal Control Officer Todd Stosuy. Luna, who has recently birthed a litter, also became sick shortly after licking Bruno and later died at a local veterinary hospital.
The dogs’ family members, who have not been publically identified, provided Stosuy with a statement to be shared with the media. In it, the family wrote that it was “very fortunate to call Bruno and Luna our fur babies,” describing the duo as “the sweetest most loving pair of dogs you could imagine.” Not just the immediate family, “but everyone who ever met them cries” at their loss, the family wrote.
During a subsequent investigation of the dogs’ death, law enforcement officials discovered that the Primrose Lane family’s yard fence had been tampered with and that a pesticide called metaldehyde appeared to have been deliberately placed in the yard, not far from where Bruno died.
“We sit in our living room and stare at Luna’s urn and still can’t seem to hold back tears,” the family wrote in its statement. “How could anyone want to hurt them? Not only did they hurt them but also their babies as Luna had just had puppies prior to being poisoned.”
After Luna’s death, three out of seven of her newborn puppies did not survive without their mother, according to the family. The family kept one of the surviving puppies, a girl named Sol who looks like her father, Bruno.
“Bruno and Luna died in agony after apparently being poisoned in their own backyard,” PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch is quoted in a media release. “While nothing can bring these dogs back, we can still stop this culprit from striking again, so PETA urges anyone with information about this case to come forward immediately.”
Anyone with information related to the case is asked to call Animal Control Officer Todd Stosuy at 831-454-7254 or email Stosuy at Todd.Stosuy@santacruzcounty.us.
