Your post made me sick too, and awakened a very awful memory that I have. My neighbors had a sicko son who loved to be mean to animals; set illegal traps, etc. Back in 1985, I had taken in a stray dog who had puppies, and there were 5 that I couldn't place, so I had Animal Control pick up 4 & I kept the 5th, Herman, so that the mom would have at least 1 baby, besides, I don't like to have only one dog, I think that they really need a companion (esp. then because I worked 2 jobs, and my girls were in school all day). Anyway, the neighbor son had asked me for the pups the week before, but I didn't trust his motives and when he saw the AC truck at my house, he came over. He said that he could've shot the pups for me instead of calling AC; this was in front of the ACO, who told us that he had homes on a ranch for 3 of the pups. Then the ACO told my neighbor's son to leave or he'd call out a deputy. The son left, and coincidentally that night, when I came home from work, the pup was sick & died before the vet could get there; the vet said it was more than likely Decon rat poison. My poor, poor little Herman...it was awful, I could hardly hold him in his agony, and the cats kept trying to rub on him & comfort him. The mom wouldn't come near him; I guess she smelled the poison. The dogs were only in the yard long enough to "do their business" that night, but the ACO said that it was more than enough time to be fed a piece of poisoned meat. A deputy questioned the neighbor's son, but there wasn't enough evidence to prosecute....I can't believe this kind of evil still goes on......anyone have any suggestions on how we can help stop it?????