Several pets were poisoned and killed in a Florida neighborhood, deputies say. Now, a neighbor is accused of poisoning them.
Marion County deputies said they arrested the man Jan. 4. He’s charged with four counts of aggravated animal cruelty after at least one dog and three cats were fatally poisoned, according to the sheriff’s office.
Deputies originally responded to a Dec. 2 report of a possible cat poisoning, the sheriff’s office said in a Jan. 5 Facebook post. The pet’s owner told officers his cat, named Mr. Cat, had died after getting sick and seizing.
Further testing showed Mr. Cat was poisoned, and the owner told deputies that his dog, Bella, had died from similar symptoms months earlier in October, the office said. Another neighbor told officers that since October, five of her cats had also died under similar circumstances.
Investigators said they worked with a doctor at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine to perform an autopsy on Mr. Cat. They also exhumed Bella and two of the other neighbor’s cats and performed autopsies.
The results of the tests showed all four animals died from ethylene glycol poisoning, likely a result of ingesting antifreeze, deputies said.
At the time of the initial investigation, deputies found a bowl of tuna mixed with what appeared to be antifreeze outside another neighbor’s home, according to the sheriff’s office. Testing confirmed the presence of the toxin.
Investigators also learned that the same neighbor who had the bowl of food outside of his home had talked about harming cats in the neighborhood and said he was putting out poisoned food for them.
Deputies officially searched the man’s home Dec. 22 and discovered three containers of antifreeze, multiple cans of tuna and fish-flavored rat-poison, they said. One of the containers of antifreeze was nearly empty.
The man is in custody at the Marion County Jail, about 80 miles northwest of Orlando.
