Woman who killed her neighbour's dog by lacing meat with anti-freeze SPARED jail

A woman who killed her neighbour’s dog by throwing poisoned meat over their fence was last month found guilty of animal cruelty, but spared jail. 

Susan Foster, 60, from Scunthorpe, deliberately laced a chunk of meat with anti-freeze and chucked it over the fence into Colin Stark’s garden where his German Shepherd Roxy ate it. 

Roxy, who Mr Stark had owned since she was eight weeks old, spent four days in terrible pain and vomiting before vets decided to put her to sleep to end her suffering. 

CCTV footage captured the moment Foster threw the food over the fence.

Hours later, she was then caught stealing the camera and trying to destroy the evidence.

At Grimsby Magistrates' Court, Foster was convicted of an act of poisoning meat and throwing it into her neighbour’s garden, and another charge of causing a drug or substance to be taken, knowing it to be poisonous.

In court, she provided no explanation for her actions and was handed a 26 week jail sentence, suspended for 12 months, on November 24.

Mr Stark, 65, said the incident, on June 12, 'came out of the blue'.

He said he and his neighbour used to say good morning to each other, but as the years wore on, they did not really speak. He said Foster kept herself to herself, stayed at home and did not work. 

But on June 12, Mr Stark noticed Roxy vomiting at his home in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, and later found strange bits of meat in his garden.

He said: 'We kept an eye on Roxy. She wasn’t being her normal self. She was lethargic, she would just lay there.

'Over the course of the day, she was getting worse and worse.

'We then took her to the vets and took samples of the meat, and he said: "I think that’s poison".'

Mr Stark found CCTV footage showing Foster throwing the the toxic food over her 6ft fence and onto his property.

Foster then tried to destroy the evidence by stealing his camera just hours after she had set her poisonous trap.

He said: 'I played it back after Roxy had been put to sleep, and on my laptop I could see something is coming over.

'I thought "Was that a bird or something?" and then I played it back slower, and you could see it was things being thrown over the fence.

'The camera’s got an alarm trigger, so it detects motion, and it set off a trigger on my phone at 11:45pm on Saturday.

'I looked at the alarm, and at first I couldn’t work out what it is.

'Then I realise it’s a hand, and it’s her hand going all over the camera, and then eventually, her face appears on the camera.' 

After the attack, Mr Stark said Foster 'vanished' and later went on to sell her bungalow.

He did not see her again until she stood trial at Grimsby Magistrates' Court.  

During the hearing, the court heard from an expert veterinary witness who concluded Roxy had been caused to suffer after ingesting antifreeze, also known as ethylene glycol.

The expert believed the clinical signs that Roxy displayed on June 14 to June 16 were consistent with her having consumed the substance on or around June 12.

Along with her suspended sentence, Foster was ordered to carry out 15 Rehabilitation Activity Requirement days.

She was also disqualified from keeping all animals for 12 months and ordered to pay £2,040 in court costs, £627 compensation to Roxy’s owners and a £120 victim surcharge.