Posted on 06/03/2015 10:10:28 AM PDT by nickcarraway
John Robinson, of North Park, said he’s tired of neighborhood pets leaving waste in his yard and is hoping the candy will prevent dog owners from walking pets near his property
A man in San Diego’s North Park community has dumped chocolate chips in his yard in an effort to deter dogs, but the act is upsetting neighbors. Frustrated with neighborhood dogs leaving waste on his lawn and dog owners not picking up after their pets, a man known as "John" recently scattered several pounds of chocolate chips in the grass in front of his home on Lincoln Avenue and in a nearby easement. Suspects Sought in Attempted ATM Theft John said it was an experiment – and that it worked. Over the last several days pet owners have been steering clear of his property, with some neighbors afraid the candy will make their animals sick. Some concerned residents have called San Diego County Animal Control and the San Diego Police Department to complain, saying this is threatening the lives of their pets. Unbelievable Animals: Python Swallows BBQ Tongs[NATL] Unbelievable Animal Stories Sarah Fisher is one of those worried residents, and she’s warning others in North Park not to walk near John’s home. “[Residents] are scared of what he might do,” Fisher told NBC 7. “If he is doing this – which is like an animal genocide – pretty much, he's putting it out for animals to ingest and get sick.”
Through social media and a neighborhood phone app, Fisher has been alerting local pet owners of the chocolate chips left in John's yard. Fisher has a two-year-old golden doodle named Lucy that she walks with regularly. She is now avoiding John’s property but fears unsuspecting animals will stumble upon the candy and get sick.
John agreed to an interview Tuesday with NBC 7, if his face wasn’t shown on camera. He said irresponsible dog owners are constantly not picking up after their pets and leaving piles of waste in his yard.
He said he has left signs in front of his home – including a note written on a yoga mat that suggests an animal could be electrocuted if it urinates on his tires.
However, those signs don’t seem to work, John said, so he came up with the chocolate chips idea.
“They can walk on the other side of the street,” he said. “I am tired of it. People disrespect my yard; I'm tired of the stuff.
John insists chocolate won't harm the animals. Still, there is a large school of thought that says it can be toxic to dogs and can lead to illness and even death, depending on what kind of chocolate it is and how much a dog ingests.
John said he plans to mow the grass in the next few days to get rid of the remaining chocolate morsels. However, his neighbors want something done about the situation immediately.
San Diego County Animal Control Deputy Director Dan DeSousa said animal services investigators were notified of this incident by North Park residents on Monday.
He said the investigation is ongoing, and no further details would be released at this time. On Wednesday John said someone had broken the mirror on his car in what he believes is retaliation against him putting the chocolate chips in his yard.
I don’t think a couple of chocolate chips is going to harm most dogs.
It would certainly attract my daughter, however.
And when they let their dogs in the leaves that our children play in, I take the hose and water the lawn. That’s get’s them nice snarky. I love it.
Video cameras. Pop ‘em for trespassing.
Sounds like the chocolate is working!
And WTF is a "golden doodle?" Some sort of little yap-yap dog?
Trust me, chocolate won’t slow a dog down one bit, especially one that barks all night.
“Still, there is a large school of thought that says it can be toxic to dogs and can lead to illness and even death,...”
Or so it’s said.
Be that as it may, we had a dog who liked chocolate. When she was a puppy, a neighbor visited us. She’d baked us a batch of chocolate fudge. We sat with our neighbor and chatted a bit, placing the fudge on a counter. When we returned, we found the dog had climbed up on to the counter and eaten all the fudge. Easily a couple of pounds. Frantic, we called the vet. She wasn’t available immediately. She called back a little while later. She chuckled, how’s the dog? Fine, we said. In a lot of trouble, but fine. Through her laughter, she told us, if the dog hadn’t already had a reaction, she’d be fine. We were more careful about our stuff after that, although she once got away with an entire bag of New York-made bagels.
She was a dog, but we think she thought she was a human. She always had a look of “why are you feeding me dog food?” When we got another dog to keep her company, she looked at us quizzically as if to ask, “what did we get a dog for?” When we had our sons, she took it upon herself to make sure to keep the dog at a distance from the babies. She may not have been the best dog, but she was a great person.
Thing is though I live in a neighborhood that is a large circle, and there are a number of other dog walkers that I see every day, and I may have seen one other dog walker in 9 years that routinely carries poop bags.
It seems that most dog walkers do not clean poop, and yeah it is a pain and no one like to pick up poop, but it is the right thing to do.
How about his neighbors keeping their dogs off his lawn?
I had a friend who wrapped Ex-Lax in chocolate and left it out for his neighbor's dog to find. The neighbor used to let the dog out to crap in my friend's yard every morning, then would lock the dog in the house for the day...
If you are walking your dog, it should be under your control. If you are worried about Poochie eating chocolate chips, that is what the leash is for!
(BTW, if Poochie eats a few chocolate chips, it is not going to kill him!)
Chocolate is bad for dogs.
So are nuts and grapes.
Years ago, a friend of mine had a neighbor that would let his dog out on trash day and the dog would spread trash all over the place throughout the neighborhood. Repeated requests to stop this had no effect what so ever. So, my friend put some ex lax inside a hot dog which was put in a trash bag (and maybe inside the can too, I can’t remember). So, the dog came into his yard, ripped open the trash and ate the hotdog. A couple of days later the owner’s house had carpet all over their yard and had to replace most of it in the house. No, the dog wasn’t seriously harmed.
We went to church 1 Easter. (we go every Sunday) While we were there, our Golden Retriever ate an entire bag of chocolate easter eggs, tin foil included. When we got home we noticed a few little scraps of the foil on the floor but she never got sick, not even so much a burp. Just lucky I guess.
Raisins would be my choice.
Won’t cause permanent harm, but the dog will vomit all over the place in about 2 hours.
Sounds like someone exercising his rights as a property owner. Keep your dogs and their leaving out of his yard, problem solved.
I must agree. Whenever someone believes he or she has the right to dump urine or fecal matter on my lawn and gardens that I quite obviously spend a lot of time caring for, I come out of my house and ask them to use the common strip three feet away between the sidewalk and street, and invariably get a faceful of disrespect even tho THEY are the ones trespassing. It often follows that they then curse me and say, "You're a b****!" To which I reply, "That's correct, and never forget it!"
why is this guy a nut because he doesn’t want some ones animal crapping on HIS property.
You and your kids stepping in your dogs feces in your yard isn’t a big deal to you and not bothering you is your business but to those with out an animal and with a different view on personal hygiene than yours it could be.
Help us out here trying understanding your logic?
Then you are not the problem.
There are lots of dog owners who are the problem, and that’s what this is about. The good dog owners don’t get a medal for doing what they should be doing anyway
Milk chocolate won’t, yes. (Unless they ate a whole bag of chips.)
Baker’s chocolate, however, will kill a dog.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.