Up to $5,000 Reward Offered in Watsonville Dog-Poisoning Case

For Immediate Release:
November 28, 2022

Contact:
Robin Goist 202-483-7382

PETA is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction on cruelty charges of the person(s) who poisoned two dogs, Luna and Bruno, in their family’s backyard on Primrose Lane, causing them to convulse and foam at the mouth before dying.

Late in the evening on October 25, the dogs barked in alarm while looking toward their backyard. The next morning, after being let outside as usual, Bruno began showing signs of poisoning and died by 8 a.m. Shortly after licking Bruno to comfort him, Luna became sick, too, and died at a local veterinary hospital, which contacted Animal Control. While investigating, law-enforcement officials discovered that the yard’s fence had been tampered with and that a pesticide called metaldehyde had apparently been deliberately placed in the yard, near where Bruno died.

Animal Control is investigating but has yet to identify a suspect, so to seek justice for Bruno and Luna and to keep other dogs safe, PETA is asking for help from the public. Would you please share this information with your audience? It may mean a break in the case.

“Bruno and Luna died in agony after apparently being poisoned in their own backyard,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “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.”

Tipsters should contact Animal Control Officer Todd Stosuy of the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter at 831-454-7254 or [email protected].

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.