A Poisoner Walked Chewelah by Night, and Twenty Dogs Never Came Home
Poisoned meat was scattered indiscriminately through town on a Friday night. Fourteen dogs were dead by the next noon, nearly twenty by Sunday morning, and the owners put up a reward for a culprit who was never named.
Some time last Friday night the dog poisoner got busy and scattered indiscriminately about town quantities of poisoned meat. Before noon the following day fourteen dogs had found the bait, and by Sunday morning nearly twenty had succumbed to the effects of strychnine. Many of the dogs so ruthlessly destroyed were valuable animals, and their owners are rightfully very indignant. A reward for the identity of the culprit or culprits has been announced. — Independent.
“Many of the dogs so ruthlessly destroyed were valuable animals, and their owners are rightfully very indignant.”
Chewelah's 1907 dog killer was never caught, and the crime sat somewhere between vandalism and property damage in the eyes of the law. Today animal cruelty is a felony in Washington, but small-town pet poisonings still go unsolved and still divide neighbours. The outrage in this item — 'rightfully very indignant' — is the same instinct that now fuels reward posters on social media.
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