Losing a close friend in the form of a family pet can be quite devastating. How much more upsetting would it be to find out that not only you but a number of people also lost their pet that visited the same area in a short span of time — and you have an idea of how people must have felt when they found out that their dogs were but one of fifteen that died in unspeakable agony within hours of visiting a well loved thirty yard walking field in Cross Hills, North Yorkshire, England.

All of the dogs that have died after visiting this walking field have exhibited similar symptoms, and yet somehow the police are only stating that they suspect foul play or that the dogs are being deliberately poisoned. I find this to be absolutely flabbergasting. We are well aware that there is no such thing as coincidence and that the thing that is causing the dogs to die in such a sad manner did not just materialize on the path on its own.

I propose that either of two things happened, one of which seems much less likely to me than the other. The first possibility is that the poisoning was entirely non deliberate and that somehow either some toxic substance blew onto the pathway or was dragged onto it by other animals that were not affected by the poison. It is also possible by this same line of reasoning that the caretakers used a substance that was new to their line of caretaking — for repelling slugs, for example — and that is what killed the dogs.

The more likely possibility is that there is someone out there who either hates dogs or wants to bring hurt to people through killing their beloved pets. Perhaps this person had a bad experience with a dog when he or she was young. Maybe they are testing the waters by hurting animals first — there is a solid link between animal cruelty and human cruelty.

I believe that we can completely discount the possibility of the caretakers of the park mistakenly using substances that would be harmful to pets out of the way because the substances that caretakers would use on such a property would have to be tested first for animal safety. You wouldn’t carpet a school with any material without making sure it was safe for use by humans and you certainly wouldn’t lay down slug repellent without making sure that it is not hurtful to dogs.

That being said, I am surprised that the police are not being more vigilant in going out and taking samples and analyzing everything that they can to try to determine what is behind the dog deaths. It would be respectful to the memories of the dogs as well as respectful to their owners to try to get to the bottom of what is causing this and who is behind it so that future dog murder like this can be prevented.