How to stop a barking dog.

An Italian man who slowly poisoned his neighbour's dog over a period of months by giving it Walnuts every time it barked, has been jailed for a year.

Arturo the dog, from the village of La Loggia near Turin, died in 2010 after vets were left baffled by seemingly inexplicable illnesses.

After some personal sleuthing and an autopsy, Arturo's owner accused an upstairs neighbour, Mario Macrì, of the poisoning. A vet discovered that nuts had paralyzed the dogs vocal cords so he could no longer bark. and it caused his demise. He said watching the dog running in the yard was like watching an old time silent movie.

Arturo's owner began compiling a dossier against Macrì after he discovered nutshells while mowing the lawn. He caught his neighbour after he built up a file of notes and photographs on the case.

The court heard that Arturo died from eating nuts, which are toxic to dogs. The one year jail sentence for cruelty to animals handed down to Macrì was far harsher than the €8,000 requested by the prosecution.

Lawyers argued that Arturo's death caused him considerable emotional pain as well as costing €5,500 in vets bills. Macrì was given suspended sentence on condition he pay €3,000 in damages

 

After reading the story I bought a small slingshot and bag of shelled walnuts. It's going to get quiet around this neighborhood real soon!

 

Is there "coywolves" and "coydogs" in your part of the country?
Lots of coydogs in my home state of Tennessee.

 

Some guy in China working in a zoo was arrested for charging people to pet the Panda Bears. Problem was, he had some Chow Chow dogs and used hair coloring to make them look like Panda Bears.