<\/i><\/b>Stories of animal abuse and neglect are nothing new. But in San Francisco, there<\/span><\/p>\n is a new threat to pets that is especially alarming, as it is more akin to an act of<\/span><\/p>\n terrorism aimed at dogs and\/or dog owners. Even worse, there are no suspects<\/span><\/p>\n in the cases of this cruel new trend.<\/span><\/p>\n In July of 2013 and February 2014, strychnine-laced meatballs were scattered in<\/span><\/p>\n parts of the city\u2019s Twin Peaks neighborhood, tucked away in carports, stairwells,<\/span><\/p>\n curbs, and bushes; places your pet — or quite possibly, a toddler — is likely to<\/span><\/p>\n get into before you can shout, \u201cNo!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The incident in February resulted in the death of a 7-year old dachshund, and<\/span><\/p>\n several other dogs needing treatment. Fortunately, the latest discovery has<\/span><\/p>\n resulted in no deaths, as diligent residents have been on high alert. The <\/span>Animal<\/span><\/p>\n Legal Defense Fund<\/span>, <\/span>SFDOG<\/span>, and Yelp CEO <\/span>Jeremy Stoppelman <\/span>\u2013 himself a<\/span><\/p>\n San Francisco resident and dog owner \u2013 have teamed up to offer a $25,000<\/span><\/p>\n reward to help track down the perpetrator(s) responsible for distributing the<\/span><\/p>\n poisoned meatballs, which is a felony.<\/span><\/p>\n San Francisco is one of the most pet-progressive cities in the nation, where,<\/span><\/p>\n according to <\/span>2010 census figures<\/span>, pets outnumber children 120,000 to 107,000; a<\/span><\/p>\n trend not exclusive to the City by the Bay, as evidenced by the explosion of pet<\/span><\/p>\n boutiques, events, and services throughout the United States. But not everyone<\/span><\/p>\n is pleased about this movement. Landords, park conservationists, and<\/span><\/p>\n environmentalists all have legitimate reasons for not wanting dogs in buildings,<\/span><\/p>\n parks, or natural habitats.<\/span><\/p>\n Are such attacks the new hate crime; the start of a growing trend of terrorism<\/span><\/p>\n against dog or dog owners? The director of the Animal Legal Defense Fund\u2019s<\/span><\/p>\n criminal justice program, Scott Heiser, seems to think so. \u201cSadly, we see these<\/span><\/p>\n cases all too often throughout the country. The twisted, sick and, in most cases,<\/span><\/p>\n sociopathic individuals who engage in this sort of conduct present a very real<\/span><\/p>\n threat to not just the pets in a community but to the humans as well. These<\/span><\/p>\n offenders see themselves as answering a higher calling. In their narcissistic<\/span><\/p>\n world, it is a short leap from poisoning dogs to culling the community of other<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018unwanteds.\u2019 They can justify almost any conduct in the name of \u2018control’ or<\/span><\/p>\n ‘restoring order’ and that strained logic is more than troubling when used to<\/span><\/p>\n legitimize any killing.”<\/span><\/p>\n Back in San Francisco, pet owners carry on, cautiously. \u201cIt\u2019s been scary for a lot<\/span><\/p>\n of people,\u201d says Lena Bella, founder of <\/span>K9 Master Dog Training <\/span>and volunteer<\/span><\/p>\n organizer at <\/span>Rocket Dog Rescue<\/span>. \u201cMany of my clients and adopters have been<\/span><\/p>\n walking their dogs with muzzles to be safe. It has made many people very<\/span><\/p>\n nervous and uncomfortable even walking their pets.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n If you have information relating to the identity of the person or persons involved,<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n please contact the Animal Legal Defense Fund at 707-795-2533, x1010.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A NEW THREAT TO HOMELAND SECURITY Stories of animal abuse and neglect are nothing new. But in San Francisco, there is a new threat to pets that is especially alarming, as it is more akin to an act of terrorism aimed at dogs and\/or dog owners. Even worse, there are no suspects in the cases […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[496],"tags":[649,650,651,648,7],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myadultland.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myadultland.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myadultland.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myadultland.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myadultland.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2443"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/myadultland.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2445,"href":"https:\/\/myadultland.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443\/revisions\/2445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myadultland.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myadultland.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myadultland.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}