Animal poisoning case leads to dozens of calls to Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office

A Sonoma County sheriff’s agricultural crime deputy continues to receive dozens of tips and calls from concerned Sonoma County residents following the recent intentional fatal poisoning of a Sebastopol-area dog and horse, a sheriff’s official said Wednesday.

Cowboy, a draft horse, and Rosie, a Labrador mix, died earlier this month after they were poisoned by oleander-tainted homemade cookies left in their Kennedy Road pasture, according to the Sheriff’s Office. While a deputy has identified a “person of interest,” no further information was released Wednesday about the person.

As part of the criminal investigation, blood samples from the two animals were being sent to UC Davis for analysis and evidence from the property where they were poisoned also was headed for a lab, sheriff’s Sgt. Cecile Focha said Wednesday.

The animals, owned by Leslie Webb, became gravely sick ?Feb. 10 and were euthanized Feb. 11. Another of Webb’s horses, Oscar, also became sick but has recovered.

Word of the poisonings in the rural Blucher Valley and Bloomfield Road area south of Sebastopol has spread beyond the west county, raising fears for animal owners. Social media reports have carried news of several other recent deaths of seemingly healthy animals in the area, losses that owners fear could be related. Some have reported finding their dead animals with bloody noses and mouths.

Focha on Wednesday acknowledged callers from all over the county have reported concerns and additional deaths, but said the horses and the dog at the one property continue to be the only case identified as an act of intentional poisoning.

One concerned animal owner is Mary Heller, who lives a few doors away from Webb. Heller said a day or so before Webb’s animals died, one of her goats became inexplicably ill and died.

While no tests were conducted, Heller said a visiting vet told her the long-eared Nubian named Nutmeg appeared to have suffered from oleander toxicity. The diagnosis, Heller said, included that the goat had suspicious heart symptoms differing from more typical cases in which animals have ingested toxic substances. The Petaluma veterinarian couldn’t be reached Wednesday for comment.

Heller buried Nutmeg and days later saw a warning notice on Webb’s property that tests had confirmed oleander-tainted cookies led to the deaths of the horse and dog. Heller has contacted the Sheriff’s Office about her goat and said she is considering adding security measures to her property, including surveillance cameras.

“I’m devastated,” she said.

The concern by pet owners remains evident at the Animal Hospital of Sebastopol, veterinarian Nicole Canon said.

“We do have a lot of clients who live in that area,” Canon said. “Clients are coming in very nervous, very scared, wanting to know if their pets have been in danger.”

It was Canon’s office that tried to save Webb’s dog Rosie. Prior to seeing Rosie, Canon said, she’d never been involved in an intentional poisoning incident in her nearly 20 years as an animal doctor. She declined to discuss Rosie’s case except to say “It’s a horrific event.”

Any part of an oleander bush is toxic to animals and humans, according to warnings about the common, flowering bush, which often is used in large landscaping areas, including along many state highways.

“It’s very, very toxic. It requires very little. It can cause deadly heart arrhythmias” and while there is an antidote for humans, there is little to be done for animals, Canon said.

No other obvious oleander cases have come through her hospital, but vets there have been aggressively treating all cases of unexplained illness.

“We have been much more vigilant,” Canon said. “We’re probably being very overly cautious just because of the nature of the issue.”

For the past few weeks, a warning sign has been posted on the animal hospital’s front door about the criminal deaths, warning clients to watch for suspicious activity, Canon said. It also suggests they walk their property and look for anything abnormal.

Webb had found three small piles of homemade oat cookies in her pasture where her animals had been the day they were poisoned. Webb collected them as evidence.

Focha declined to say if the cookies were the evidence being sent to a lab.