Comment Roundup: Poisoned Meat Left for Dogs

Wednesday's story about a landscaper who allegedly left antifreeze-soaked hotdogs on the lawn of the Bricklayers' Apprentice Fund at 550 Medford Street triggered a lot of attention and a lot of comments—some of them useful.

A few takeaways:

Tell your dog walkers about this story.

Reader Megan Scarborough said that her dog walker said that she wasn't surprised to hear that the landscaper had allegedly poisoned dogs, and had intentionally been avoiding that section of Medford Street as a result. But that doesn't mean that your dog walker is as alert.

We need more information.

Scarborough and Chris Z noted that their dogs had been sick on Friday night. The incident that triggered the police report obtained by Charlestown Patch occurred on Sunday, but witnesses said they had noticed similar incidents at early dates.

If your dog has also fallen suddenly sick recently, please tell us in the comments. If other residents' pets experienced mysterious illness on the same day, perhaps you can draw the conclusion that it was caused by the tainted meat.

Not everyone reacted the same way.

While most readers were aghast that anyone would intentionally poison a pet—with reactions ranging from raw horror to questioning why the witnesses didn't restrain the landscaper until police arrived—some people took the story as an opportunity to make political points and slam pet owners.

Jeff Connors, on our Facebook page, responded to a comment from Charlestown Patch that we didn't have the landscaper's name with a suggestion that we should publish the names of pet owners who let their animals poop on other people's property.

"If you don't have a yard it's simple. Don't have a dog!" Connors wrote.

Back in the story's comment section, reader Amy Bird seemed to make a political connection with the alleged crime.

"Let me guess... the area with the obnoxious Obama sign?" she wrote. "I wouldn't walk my dog near there anyway."

Other readers pointed out that the sign was not relevent to the conversation.