What a beautiful, lovable dog. And what a loss. My sympathies to you and your family.

Kate

This is so disgusting. These are bad people that have NO respect for life. So emotionally , spiritually, and morally bankrupt , they are unable to relate or appreciate the purity and honesty of pets and what they mean to their owners. Abuse an animal; GO TO JAIL!

Thanks so much for your well wishes and letting me rant! In checking around today, I found out two other dogs in the neighborhood have recently been poisoned. Most in the country around here, let their dogs run free, and we often have quite a few visiting. I donâÂÂt mind that at all as long as they are friendly with our animals, but I know some donâÂÂt feel that way...Still inexcusable to poison a dog, though!
We do discourage ours from leaving the farm, so when Colt began wandering, we put him on the invisible fence to keep him safe. I still just canâÂÂt believe this happened. My son is brokenhearted and IâÂÂm mad as can be.

Pat - That is so sad. He looks like such a lovable dog, so sorry for you and your family.

I'm so very sorry for your loss. I don't really know what can be said in this kind of situation except that there is a special place in hell for anyone that would do this on purpose. Is it possible that maybe he got into something accidentally and that it wasn't intentional??

Maude

We feel for you here, sorry for your loss.

Please make sure to file a police report. You may help saving another animal in the future.

Sad...This brought tears to my eyes... RIP Colt

The vet said he sees deliberate poisoning way too often, and that ColtâÂÂs blood work was in line with thatâ¦said he couldnâÂÂt be certain, but that was what he suspected. IâÂÂm not sure how you would differentiate between intentional and accidental by blood work, though, and didnâÂÂt think to ask at the time. Now with the knowledge of two other dogs on our street recently being poisoned, I really doubt that it was accidental, but I guess anything is possible. My mind hasnâÂÂt been clear today and I hadnâÂÂt even thought about filing a police report, but I will definitely call about that tomorrow.

There is a problem with antifreeze, in that it is very sweet, palatable. This accidental poisoning is more common than it should be. If someone killed my dog intentionally? Yikes. Duck and cover.

Sorry for your loss but I need to say something about letting him run free and "that others may not feel the same". If you knew this, maybe should have restricted his roaming more or better, to protect him. Maybe it was an accident or maybe he was chasing some ones chickens etc. . I don't believe in poisoning and I think if there was a problem w/your dog that they should have approached you . Just the same not everyone wants your dog on their property. Just saying. I fill sad for Colt and your family

Yes, I understand, thatâÂÂs what I meant about everyone not feeling the same. I donâÂÂt mind other dogs on my property since I have 4 anyway, but mine donâÂÂt normally leave my property when they are outside. They have fenced areas they stay in when we arenâÂÂt home. When we are home and outside, we let them roam outside of their fencing, but they stay in our yard, pasture or woods with the exception of Colt recently deciding he wanted to wander farther. ThatâÂÂs why we put him on the invisible fenceâ¦to keep him from going on to others property, causing trouble or being in danger. He seemed to be doing very well on it, but did get out this weekend for the first time that IâÂÂm aware of since having it installed.

I am very sorry for your loss. At first I thought possibly it could have been poison intended for gophers or rats, but I am sure you have investigated that.

This is a terrible thing to have happened. Thank you for posting.
Sammy

I am so very sorry for the loss of your beloved Lab. This has broken my heart tonight as I know the pain of this kind of loss. To think that some evil person would do this is beyond words. I hope you can catch the person that did this and that they are punished . Please let your son know there are many of us that feel his pain and that his dog will always be in his heart....yours,too. So sorry, so very sorry.
Lesley

Two of the three dogs I've ever owned were baited by the man across the road. One of the murders was with strychnine. It was then that I decided I was all for capital punishment. The murderer also complained a lot about being kept awake at night by the sound of submarines in Sydney Harbour. So there you have the kind of person who'd do such a thing.

Some people put out bait to kill rats, etc maybe Colt
got into some of that?...

There are local dogs that come here and make a mess, some are hostile to me and have threatened me at my own front door or when I am trying to get out of my car. Once I had to drive and get a neighbor to help me chase them away so I could get to the door. As angry as I get about it, I would never ever try to hurt them. I wonder how it must be for them at home to be so mean here on my property and I feel sorry for them.

Someone needs to find this person and get the police to stop them. Who knows, they could just be putting out poison where any animals could find it. This is just so awful and sad. I feel like part of my life goes whenever one of my pets passes away.

I'm so sorry. This is heartbreaking. Paper the area with flyers letting neighbors know what happened. And do file a report with the police. Other neighbors may have suffered the same loss. Maybe some pattern could be found--whether intentional or accidental that could prevent another loss. What a sweet dog.
Susan

I did ask the vet about rat poisoning even though we donâÂÂt have any of it. He didnâÂÂt think that was it. Anyway, IâÂÂve been thinking today about what a gentle giant Colt wasâ¦he didnâÂÂt have a mean or aggressive bone in his body. Even if another dog tried to start a fight, he wouldnâÂÂt fight backâ¦he only wanted to play and didnâÂÂt understand anger. IâÂÂm going to try to set aside my anger at a supposedly inescapable Boundary Plus Invisible Fence that obviously wasnâÂÂt inescapable and about a poison whether it was intentional or accidental. IâÂÂm going to try to focus on something positive. My son and his ex-girlfriend have been talking again since ColtâÂÂs death and may reconcile. Colt adored her and that would have made him very happy. Kitty, I understand where you are coming from. Most of the dogs that come on our property are friendly and donâÂÂt cause too much of a mess, but we have had ones show up who were vicious toward our animals or frightening to us. Those we donâÂÂt welcome, but we would never poison one, either. ItâÂÂs not the dogs fault that their owners encourage that type of behavior.

Colt and my son's girlfriend (again maybe)

It's heartbreaking that such a sweet and loving creature should have his life ended this way. I'm so very sorry that you are having to go through this. I've heard that invisible fences often don't work in the long run and am a strong believer in secure fencing. Having said that, I can't begin to understand the evil and/or sick mentality of someone who would do this. There are also people who simply don't think that animals matter all that much. We have a long way to go still to make people understand how special and wonderful animals are, whether they are wild or our best friends.

I am truly sorry for your loss. Some non-pet people can't understand why we, as pet owners, will grieve over the loss of a beloved companion. To them, they're animals. To us, they're our children.

What a beautiful dog. I love Labs. He looks like a real sweetie. I'm very sorry for the pain you and your family must be going through. Some people think I am nutty never letting my dogs outside by themselves. Am I? I don't think so.

One can only hope it was accidental, poison left out for rats or something--that there are not monsters living in your neighborhood.

An autopsy to pinpoint the poison might help...might save some other dogs life...

I remembered that I saw on the news last week that some jerky treats for animals were full of poision and many pets have died already. There is no brand name because there are a number of them coming out of China and full of deadly chemicals.

A friend says maybe it is someone trying to poison squirrels or other animals and dogs are eating the bait which smells good to them as well. If they are just scattering it around, maybe they aren't thinking about people's pets.

Also I want to remind anyone with cats about lilies which cause kidney failure and death in as little as 20 minutes. My cat vet says there is nothing they can do about it but end the suffering so please watch out for beautiful lethal lilies.

I've been on both sides of the line. I've had people get very upset over my cats killing neighborhood birds, inciting dogs to bark, upsetting their indoor cats, and using their yards for a litter box. I've lost one cat to poison and I've also lost 5 cats to loose dogs. One of the (many) reasons I don't own a gun is because if I saw a dog on my property chasing my cats, I'd shoot him so fast you wouldn't have time to blink.

But poison takes time and thought--time enough to calm down and find other solutions, unless one is very angry, frustrated, grief-stricken (excluding nut cases and the purely evil). So, your dog might be innocent, but someone else's may not be. Also, in the country, people put out poison for coyotes. Bottom line, whoever poisoned your dog is trying to defend his/her space and very possibly has suffered some major losses from dogs &/or coyotes. Your dog violated that space.

If I let my cats roam, I am responsible when someone throws a brick at one for pooping in the flowerbed. Even the nicest people get angry, fed up, loose their tempers, run out of patience and good will.

Yes, there are people who are cruel, who just don't like animals and will poison them out of hand. But there are also a lot of people who have suffered great losses from dogs who are sweet as can be in their own homes with their own people around.

I sympathize with your loss, but not your umbrage.

So sorry for your loss. I hope that now you're rethinking how you let your dogs roam for their sake. I mean knowing that there is someone putting out poison you need to take care to protect your other animals.

I live is a small close town where the homes are only a few feet apart. We've had people purposely put out poison for cats. We have a large elderly population here and they put out cat food for the strays because well that is their source of entertainment. Most elderly don't leave their homes and watch the stray cats from their window. So some fool got tired of all of the cats and added antifreeze to cat food. Its a horrible way to die. Eventually they find out who did it and press charges but then it happens again a few years later in another part of town. We also now have a skunk problem because what the cats don't eat the skunks then finish off at night. My husband and I had talked about how to get rid of the skunks but would never ever put out poison for them. Besides the fact that poisoning is cruel we would worry about other animals eating it or children getting into it some how. There are so many things that could happen you just can't take that chance.

At this point, besides contacting your local police and ASPCA to report it, you'll have to take better steps to protect your pets. As I tell our children, you can never be too careful. Dogs, cats etc. tend to get into things they're not supposed to. We wouldn't put poisonous plants inside our house if we knew our cats could chew on them and get sick or worse just as we don't allow our cats outside period because one we live close to a road, 2 there are stray dogs around that could kill them, 3 there are people who put out poisons or would take our cats, and 4 house cats live longer and have fewer illnesses than cats that go out. Our dogs only go out into our fenced yard and walk on a leash. We would be fined and or lose our dog to the law if we let them run free. We have leash laws here.

Again, sorry for your loss. I hope none of your other pets get sick.

I am very, very sorry about you losing your dog. People who don't have these special members of their family will never understand what it's like.

I'll probably get flamed for saying this, but I think it's unprofessional of the vet to plant assumptions in such a time of distress.

My grandmother's beagle romped the neighborhood where everyone is VERY close. One night she came back sick. She shortly thereafter died from kidney and liver failure and my grandmother was absolutely heartbroken.

A couple days later the neighbor from across the street came over to tell her he had found the radiator on one of their cars was leaking in the driveway and he had to tell her how sorry he was for not finding it sooner.

I had a dog that killed a rat that had eaten poison from the neighbors' barn (we don't use poison because it's indescriminate) and it also died.

Accidents happen. There are indeed terrible people in the world who hurt animals, but it's not always the case. I just think it's more hurtful in times like these to dwell on the idea that your pet was deliberately murdered.

Just my .02. Again, I'm terribly sorry your family is going through this. He looks like a wonderful dog.

I guess I havenâÂÂt been very clear. We live on a 100 acre family farm. Most people in the country around me donâÂÂt contain their dogs whatsoever, but we do keep ours in a fenced area about the size of a small suburban back yard if they are outside without us. When we are outside, we often let them out of their fencing to go back in the pasture with us or to the pond in our woods with us or simply to be in more of the 2 acre area we keep as our yard with us. They are allowed to run freely around those areas when we are outside as long as they stay on our property and within sight. We donâÂÂt normally have a problem with them trying to leave our property when off leash. Colt started wanting to venture farther sometimes. I donâÂÂt know whyâ¦it had not been an issue previouslyâ¦all our cats and dogs are spayed/neuteredâ¦I just donâÂÂt know why he was no longer able to be off leash. My cats have been on an invisible fence system for many years and never cross over its boundaries. They arenâÂÂt allowed outside when we arenâÂÂt out there or at night even with the invisible fence. The invisible fence wonâÂÂt protect them from animals coming into our yard, but does keep them from straying. When we started having the problem with Colt off leash back in August, we upgraded our existing invisible fence for the cats to their new Boundary Plus system which they market as virtually inescapable. We added a zone for Colt that encompassed the majority of our 2 acre âÂÂyardâ so he would have more room to roam than the âÂÂhardâ fenced area when we were outside. He escaped it for a short time this weekend and is now dead. Thanks to everyone for their concern, but I do regret I started this thread as itâÂÂs painful to keep rehashing.