Just got back from feeding my feral cat route and found poison???........

It's almost too shocking for me to believe........I have a route in town with 10 stops where I have tnr'd colonies, small-large, and I care for them with food, water and shelter, medical if needed, etc.

My 2nd to last stop tonight, I got there and found food already, 4 piles with something all over the top of it and 3 more piles of just this stuff.

Now I am not all that educated on poison, but my gut tells me this is poison.

Pics speak volumes......



Of course I removed it all completely, but now am sickened.......theyre in danger.

Who would want to do this to a well maintained, healthy bunch, all fixed and vaccinated, well fed, no fighting, mating, spraying...................

Is this what I think it is??

Oh my God, that's terrible! Leaving poison in a public place is illegal, isn't it?

If I were you I'd leave a few trail cams out tonight to see if I can catch the culprits in action. It's a  good job you were able to remove it, are the cats all OK?

Your gut is right. That looks like whole grain rat poison.

http://www.animalcontrol.com.au/mouseoffbd.htm

http://www.petpoisonhelpline.com/poison/long-acting-anticoagulants-mouse-and-rat-poison/

Oh no! This is horrible! How could anyone do this?!

I'm not educated in poison either, but I think your intuition may be right. The only other thing I was going to say was that it could be some kind of bird seed, but it's suspicious to be planted in with the ferals' food. I tried to do an internet search for something that looks similar, but I couldn't find anything.

I'm so sorry you found this. It also makes me feel sick to my stomach. 

It strikes me, this is very unskilled done by this villain poisoner.  Or grossly overdone.

A few grains here and there wouldnt be noticed.

It may be an unskilled cat hater with very big boiling hate.   But I think it was also a signal to you Catwoman, so you would notice there was poisoning oncoming....

Exactly what this warning should achieve, I dont know,  but I think it was a signal.  It may even been aimed more at you personally than these cats.

A so clear a signal the seeds were perhaps not even poisoned - the message of strong warning clear enough.

*vibes!*

nfire:

ProCat is right. You are right.

If you can afford inexpensive wildlife (or other) cameras that record to an sd card (or similar), you can prosecute. In fact, just contact a local ASPCA or Humane Society, they may help. It is illegal to poison domestic cats as if they are wildlife (and many states prohibit that), and in California it is a felony.

A bird researcher (Nico Dauphine) in Washington DC had her career ruined when convicted of just "attempted" poisoning. It was film that caught het putting poison in the bowls left by a TNR group that helped the conviction. It was prosecuted by The Washington Humane Society. I'll post links later.

I am so, so, SO sorry hun. I hope the kitties will be ok while someone figures out who this is so they can be arrested.

I am just so sad and sickened by this.  What type of a person would do this?  I hope that you can catch the person or at least get the cats to safety.  I would contact the Humane Society to see if they can help.  You are in my thoughts.

Thanks everyone.

I was thinking about some kind of surveillance too, I know I can't stake it out night after night for who knows how long until the next attempt. So a small camera would be the way to go.

Over the years I've had an occasional threat or had to convince a biz owner that they are a controlled colony and will not be a problem, but never actually had someone attempt to poison an entire colony.

It's so disturbing......now I will be worrying, what's the next move when they see the poison didnt work.

And there is no faint signal here, they clearly want them dead. Wish I had had my camera out there with me to show how carefully they placed the food then the poison over the top along the curb, just as I leave their food.

Just sickens me.

I know without proof such as a video of the person actually doing this, the police won't touch it.

Believe me I will do whatever it takes to find out just who did this.

Catwoman, here's an article on Nico Dauphine, found guilty of ATTEMPTED poisoning: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local...imal-cruelty/2011/10/31/gIQAIUNWaM_story.html

The surveillance video isn't up on the web that I can find any longer.

Thank you LDG for that article.

It confirms to me that I NEED a camera out there.

Working on that TODAY like a detective, I have to find who did this, and wants the cats gone. I'm looking at maintenence, everyone.

Call a local Humane Society or ASPCA. They may be able to help with surveillance, especially if you share the Nico Dauphine info with them. If the community supports TNR, you can even consider calling the local police. In the DC case, local police were part of the investigation process, and I was in touch with them.

I filed a police report online, thought it may be important documentation for future.

I had thoughts that maybe, just maybe I would be able to get to the bottom of this pretty easily once I rwelaxed and gave it more thought.

There are several rat traps set up at the bldg next door, look like a larger brown box in a way.

I had the thought that maybe maintenence set those out and they would have that same grain poison inside.

But while going by there earlier today, it just so happened that the Clark pest control guy showed up while I was there, so we talked for a bit and he is the one who set out the traps, which have a solid blue block of poison inside.

So basically at square one still. The cats all seemed fine, I thought they would be since the poisoned food didn't look disturbed last night, but juuust in case.......you know.

:cross:

Big Vibes to you and the cats catwoman!        This is such a terribly upsetting thing.   While I love the idea of you catching this person on video and them being prosecuted, another idea would be to scare them away by posting signs that the area is under video surveillance and that poisoning wildlife is illegal.    They'll always be nervous that there's a camera on them even if you don't have one there in the future at all times and perhaps never come by the area again.

catwoman707 said:

 
The cats all seemed fine, I thought they would be since the poisoned food didn't look disturbed last night, but juuust in case.......you know.

Click to expand...

The second statement is more calming than the first.  As the rat poisons are typically slow killers.   They victoms just dont fall down and die perhaps after a few twitches.  Their K-vitamine is destroyed, and thus they get more and more internal bleedings.  Takes several days.    Peculiar our society accepts such a cruel death as a normal routine...

The remedy  to this poisoning is thus easy: big dosages of extra vitamine K.

Nay, lets hope they didnt ate it at all,  perhaps feeling this was something new and highly unusual (after all, grains is no favorite food for cats).    OR this was a warning to you being so grossly overdone, and the grain werent really poisoned.

It is not the first time  I do hear about poisoning of  homeless cats whom  gets food by merciful people.  Evil people are everywhere among us.  It just takes one evil person to destroy the good done by 10 righteous... *sadly smile*

*vibes!*

catwoman707 said:

 
I filed a police report online, thought it may be important documentation for future.

I had thoughts that maybe, just maybe I would be able to get to the bottom of this pretty easily once I relaxed and gave it more thought.

There are several rat traps set up at the bldg next door, look like a larger brown box in a way.

I had the thought that maybe maintenence set those out and they would have that same grain poison inside.

But while going by there earlier today, it just so happened that the Clark pest control guy showed up while I was there, so we talked for a bit and he is the one who set out the traps, which have a solid blue block of poison inside.

So basically at square one still. The cats all seemed fine, I thought they would be since the poisoned food didn't look disturbed last night, but juuust in case.......you know.

Click to expand...

It's strange that a building right next door to a cat colony has a problem with rats. Is this an apartment building or warehouse? Do they have security camera's? Maybe their camera's picked up someone acting suspiciously?

As StefanZ said, cats are unlikely to eat grain, especially if they are used to being regularly fed by you.

Hope they are all OK.

Lord, what is wrong with people?  I am so happy you caught this - and filed the police report.

I second contacting any shelter, cruelty group or rescue group in your area.  If this fiend did this to your colony, he or she may try it with another one.  Until you determine who did it and why, I would really put out the word about this.

StefanZ, I agree, I have been reading some things about the poison and how it affects them, that it takes time, watch for bleeding, nose, etc. I am going by there 2-3 times a day to observe, went late last night, all is well and fine, just to be certain that none was eaten.

They're considered my kids away from home basically, I love each one of them and feel responsible for their well being. Of course I know that things do happen that are out of my control, but I do my best.

I also understand that vitamin K is an antidote, but must be given in via injection.

Just hoping I don't have to 'go there'.....

Norachan, I agree! When I saw them I thought, really??! Sort of funny. Then yesterday when I ran into the Clark Pest Control guy, I did ask what's up with the rat traps, he said the senior center (the bldg next to where my colony is and where the traps are) pays for their services as pest control, bugs, rodents, whatever and it is standard procedure when the weather changes to place rat traps, included in their standard maintenence plan.

He said he doesn't find any rats in them Hah, wonder why that might be!

Bastfriend, yes! I completely agree and am on it.

I have heard of people buying a big bottle of vitamin K pills for farm dogs who ate rat poison. . .they say it works, maybe not quite as well as an injection but these are the kind of people who wouldn't spend money on a farm dog so it's the best the dog can expect :/. So maybe it could be an option to add a little vitamin K to their food for a few days, I don't think it would hurt if they weren't poisoned (but you should look that up) and might help if they ate a little of the poison.

I will look in to that Willowy, thank you.