ILOILO — Authorities are investigating the suspected poisoning of 13 dogs in Zone 1, Barangay San Jose, San Miguel town after they were found dead on Wednesday, April 29.
Police Captain Bryan Alejo, officer-in-charge of the San Miguel Municipal Police Station, said in an Aksyon Radyo Iloilo interview that a local couple discovered nine of their pet dogs scattered across their yard and in a nearby vacant lot at approximately 9 a.m.
Plastic containers were also recovered outside the cyclone wire fence containing rice mixed with a substance believed to be zinc phosphide, commonly known as rat poison. Police noted that the dogs were able to exit the fenced area through a hole they had dug in the ground.
By the evening of April 29, Joeven Samontanes and his wife discovered an additional four dead dogs in the same vacant lot, bringing the total to 13.
The Samontanes couple recalled hearing their dogs barking persistently from 11 p.m. on April 28 until the early morning hours, but they did not check on the animals at the time.
San Miguel police are considering the possibility that neighbors who were annoyed by the dogs may be responsible for the incident.
The recovered substances and the carcasses have been turned over to the San Miguel Municipal Agriculture Office for formal examination./PN
