Dan Bitor was worried when his dogs became ill last weekend. He is now devastated after finding out they were poisoned.
“You have no idea to watch a dog suffer like that and the pain they were going through. It is horrible, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. I wouldn’t want to kill my worst enemy that way,” said Bitor. “I want people to hug and kiss their dogs and do a perimeter check because there is somebody out there doing this.”
Bitor said his 11-year-old pit bull Tank was rushed it to Fairfield Animal Hospital in Kelowna on Sunday but it had to be euthanized. He returned to his home in West Bench to find another one of his dogs coughing up blood so hard that his legs were collapsing beneath him. He immediately drove back to the animal hospital.
“The vet said he wasn’t coughing, it was coming from his lungs and the only thing that would do that is some sort of rat poison or blood thinner type of thing,” he said. “They did tests and it came back positive for rodenticide, which is rat poison.”
By Monday morning his other dogs, Sugar, a chocolate lab, and Norton, a golden retriever, had similar signs of illness. He said Sugar had to also be euthanized and Norton was taken to the Kelowna animal hospital. Bitor does not know who would do something like this.
“If someone had thrown something over our fence, the first dog that wandered by would have eaten all four and not left some for his buddy. The perpetrator must have called the dogs to the gate, targeting each one,” said Bitor, who now has a $3,000 vet bill.
He believes his dogs were poisoned when he left them outside, but within his completely fenced yard. He said RCMP have been out to his property to investigate, as well as a conservation officer. Bitor’s two remaining dogs have been released from the hospital.