Family mourns dog's death

A Havre family would like answers and for the community to be vigilant after their dog was put down because of what, they said, they suspect might be antifreeze poisoning.

Sascha, a 1-year-old German shepherd, belonged to the Peltier family who have a house in Highland Park.

“She was a really good dog,” Brock Peltier said. “Smart, loving, protective … a beautiful dog.”

The family got her because, Peltier said, he is away a lot since he works for the railroad and needed someone to watch over his place and family while he was gone.

“She was a good guard dog,” he added, saying that she loved being outside, so she spent the majority of her time playing in their yard.

Sascha had been sick for a couple of months, Peltier said, adding that she didn’t seem to want to eat and she was drinking excessively.

When she started losing weight and the family noticed she had a bad odor coming from her, he said, they took her to the Eastside Animal Hospital where the veterinarian asked Peltier if he had any antifreeze lying around.

“I said no way I have any lying around ... no way she could have been exposed around this house,” Peltier said.

He said the veterinarian then did an X-ray but no blockages or anything wrong with Sascha were found that would be causing the symptoms, so they were sent home with antibiotics for their dog.

“We gave the antibiotics and she seemed to be getting better, but then she got worse again … she was vomiting,” Peltier said, adding that he then took Sascha back to the the animal hospital where they ran blood tests and found that her kidneys were shutting down.

“(The veterinarian) told me the blood work came back and the levels of toxins in a normal sick dog are supposed to be between 30 and 60 and my dog was over a thousand,” he said. “I asked how her tests could be so high — she said antifreeze.”

Dr. Tari Mord, a veterinarian at Eastside Animal Hospital, said there is no test that can 100 percent confirm a poisoning of an animal, but tests such as blood work or a urinalysis can be performed to help look, if they have a specific toxin in mind.

Also after an animal dies, a necropsy can look for tissue changes that may have been caused by the toxins, Mord said.

Animal owners need to be careful of exposing their pets to items that may be toxic to them, she added.

The veterinary staff told him that antibiotics wouldn’t help Sascha at that point and the humane thing would be to put her to sleep, Peltier said, adding that he took her home that night and told the family what the veterinarian said.

“I took the next day off,” he said. “I took her to the Blaine County Veterinary Services in Chinook for a second opinion.”

The veterinary service kept Sascha in their care from Tuesday of last week to Thursday, when he received a phone call, Peltier said.

“They said they tried everything … she is not going to make it,” he said, adding that he took Sascha back home for one night so the family could say goodbye.

His kids are extremely sad, he added.

Peltier also has another dog — a little wiener dog — that he is worried about now, he said, adding that he feels he needs to get some more security cameras.

“It is not right someone is doing it,” he said. “My daughter is only 6 years old. … When she found out, she cried herself to sleep.”

Peltier said he the took his dog into the veterinary service Friday and had Sascha put to sleep.

He has two security cameras at his house, he said, but they did not catch anything on those cameras.

“Maybe (someone) was giving it to her slowly,” Peltier said, adding that when he told a neighbor what happened, his neighbor said he was worried because his dog had also been getting sick.

“I recommended that he go to the vet,” he said.

“(My neighbor) went down to the police station,” he said. “The police called me the next day.”

“We are still looking into this situation,” said Havre Police Department Chief of Police Gabe Matosich. “We can’t prove that it was an intentional poisoning.”

The neighbors’ dog was sick, he added, but is better now. They are not sure what he was sick with; if it was poison or illness.

Peltier added that he wants to get his story out so that the public can know what happened; maybe it will let him get some closure.

The police department gets reports of animal poisonings “once in a great while,” Matosich said.

Animal owners need to be careful of exposing their pets to items that may be toxic to them, Mord said.

“There are a lot of lists out there of toxic items,” she said, adding that items such as grapes or substances that contain xylitol are toxic to animals as well as various plants and flowers.

Mord also added that if a person owns a dog that barks constantly, it might be good to keep them inside during the night.

Havre Animal Control Officer Pete Federspiel added that keeping an animal’s area safe is “like childproofing your house.” It is important to be vigilant of what your animal can get into that will be toxic to them.

Also, when walking your animal, it is important to keep them on a leash, Matosich said.

“We looked into (the possible poisoning),” Matosich added. “We can’t show it is criminal.”