Teen facing charges after breaking into animal shelter and poisoning multiple dogs
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JEROME — A 13-year-old boy is facing multiple felony charges after he broke into an animal shelter and poisoned several dogs, police said.
The incident happened at the Jerome Animal Shelter on Monday, July 10.
“It was late hours when we found out about it after he (the teen) called himself in and said what he did so he was still on scene,” said Jerome Police Department Capt. Anthony Gratzer.
Officers responded to the animal shelter after 9 p.m. and discovered dogs were given rat poisoning. The dogs were also let out, according to animal shelter technician Brittney Howe.
“He let all the dogs out and the thing is, when dogs come off the streets or as owner surrenders, some of them are dog-to-dog aggressive or dog-to-people aggressive,” Howe explained. “We are extremely lucky that we didn’t have any aggressive dogs that would have attacked the kid or attacked the other dogs. We had to chase down a couple of them off the streets.”
She added that they saw rat poisoning on the ground and that’s how they knew how to help the dogs.
“A lot of the dogs were really lethargic (and) looked like they had stomach aches, but really, you can’t initially tell. We are just lucky that the rat poison was on the ground and we saw it because it happens pretty quick,” Howe said. “Once the body digests it, it starts shutting down their liver and kidney and then dogs have bloody stools and then they die.”
Howe told EastIdahoNews.com rat poison was also mixed in with dog food to entice the dogs to eat it. She said they had to force the dogs to drink hydrogen peroxide.
“It induces vomiting. Once we saw them vomit and saw which ones were confirmed to have rat poison in their stomach, we gave them what’s called activated charcoal and what that does is neutralize the ingredient that causes the dog’s kidney to shut down,” she explained.
Howe said seven out of 11 dogs were poisoned. The dogs range from little to big, young and old.
“For the sake of making sure that we did absolutely everything we could to make sure these dogs have a positive recovery, we then gave them Vitamin K and they are still on Vitamin K for another week,” she said. “They are doing really well. We are lucky that they all came out of this situation alive.”
Since the dogs are doing well, Howe said they will be headed to a rescue next week. They will go to Spokane, Washington, to have a second chance at adoption.
“I would like to give credit to my staff — both the animal shelter and my officers — especially Sawtooth (Veterinary Services). Had they not acted the way they did, I think we would have had a different outcome and so I am grateful for the outcome we did have,” said Gratzer.
The animal shelter was closed for about two days after the incident to give care to the dogs and to make sure they were okay, Gratzer added.
As for the teen, Gratzer says he is facing charges including felony burglary, felony malicious injury to property, felony attempted grand theft, felony poisoning animals and misdemeanor criminal trespass. His name is not being released at this time because he is a minor.