2 dogs, 12 raccoons, 1 oppossum possibly poisoned
Riverdale, IL (US)Incident Date: Sunday, Mar 5, 2006
County: Cook
Disposition: Open
Suspect(s) Unknown - We need your help!
Lionel Trepanier was taking his 6-year-old daughter for a walk through the Kickapoo Forest Preserve in Riverdale when he came across a disturbing sight: a dead dog. Then another one.
Then several dead raccoons and an opossum. In all, more than a dozen dead animals lay within 100 feet of one another. None had a visible injury. Half were bleeding from the nose or mouth.
"I couldn't really mark the areas because we had to get out of there," Trepanier said. "My daughter was breaking down in tears."
But Trepanier, an environmental activist and former secretary of the Illinois Green Party, said one word flashed through his mind: poison. After Trepanier called in the find, Cook County Forest Preserve police recovered the animal bodies. The county's animal control department plans to run tests, and the state's animal poison control center is watching closely. "Our own officer said it looked, in his own words, weird," Forest Preserve spokesman Steve Mayberry said. "All these animals collected in one place. . . . When we get the toxic report, we'll find out if it's rabies, or if it's toxin, or something else."
Police collected two dogs, 12 raccoons and an opossum, Forest Preserve Police Chief Richard Waszak said. Vets at the poison control center -- run by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, in cooperation with the state agriculture and health departments -- have volunteered to help collect specimens. "The circumstances are certainly unusual," poison control spokeswoman Dana Farbman said. "If samples are collected . . . we would be very interested in seeing that those samples are analyzed to make sure we find out the cause." Tests are scheduled for later this week.
Trepanier said he first came across the grisly scene March 5, 2006. The animals were in a heavily wooded area about 150 feet north of the northwest corner of the Kickapoo play field. The preserve is bordered by Halsted and Wood streets, and 142nd and 147th streets. The animals were found about 200 yards from the Little Calumet River, Trepanier said. Because he left quickly on the day he first found the animals, Trepanier needed help finding the spot again. He went back two weeks later with students from the Forum School, an alternative private high school in Blue Island. The students were disturbed by what they found, said teacher Jan Favia, a friend of Trepanier's who arranged the trip as part of a lesson. "The dogs . . . one of them was in perfect condition," Favia said. "Most of the possums looked like the vultures had gotten to them." Trepanier thinks more animals might have died in the same area but had already been eaten by scavengers. He said he saw scattered remains of other animals. If you have information on this case, please contact:
Forest Preserve Police
(708) 771-1000
References
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