Hong Kong dog poisoner returns

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Rita <r.e.fazio Fazio

Saturday, June 12, 2004 2:55 PM

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Hong Kong dog poisoner returns

More than 200 pets at park sickened by tainted meat

By MARGARET WONG, Associated Press

June 5, 2004

HONG KONG - A mystery attacker has struck again in Hong Kong, dropping

poisoned meat in a popular jogging area where more than 200 dogs have

been sickened - dozens of them fatally - in a case that's stumped

authorities for 15 years.

" Dog slayer returns, " said a headline in the South China Morning Post

newspaper after a pair of Labradors fell ill after snapping up poisoned

chicken while walking on hilly paths in the upscale Mid-Levels

neighborhood.

Since 1989, when the first poisoning occurred, police have installed

hidden video cameras and sought the help of a Swedish animal legal

expert. But they've had no suspects - and officials now say they're not

even sure whether one person is involved or several.

The most famous victim was a Norfolk terrier belonging to the last

British colonial governor, Chris Patten. It was poisoned, but survived,

just a few months before Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997.

Police realized the dog poisoner was back in action Tuesday, when they

found several pieces of meat coated with purple granules. Hours later,

the Labradors - named Harry and Sally - started vomiting and having

muscle spasms.

" By the time we got to the vet, they both had very bad diarrhea and had

collapsed, " said their owner, Brian Stewart, an Australian native who is

a veterinarian for the Hong Kong Jockey Club.

The dogs were treated with injections, ice packs and cold baths. Their

veterinarian, Lloyd Kenda, said the dogs had been poisoned with a

pesticide that comes from the same chemical family as nerve gas.

Kenda, another Australian, said he has seen more than 100 similar dog

poisoning cases over the past 10 years and that nearly half of the

animals died. The Post said more than 200 dogs have been sickened, but

police could provide no immediate tally. The poisons that have sickened

all the dogs are similar and easily purchased in Hong Kong, officials

said.

The Mid-Levels area where the dogs have eaten the tainted meat is home

to many expatriate Westerners.

There have been few clues about the dog poisoner, and one of the best is

almost a decade old.

A lawyer, Jonathan Midgely, said he talked to a man holding a bag of

" dirty-looking " chicken and a small garden tool one morning in 1995,

minutes before his dog, Ruth, was poisoned.

" He was a Chinese man and he was very peculiar, " Midgely said. " He told

me he often came here feeding the dogs and the birds, how wonderful the

animals were and how much he loved them. "

But the lawyer said he never saw the man again, though he remembers his

" thinning hair brushed forward and unusually round face. "