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Residents say pets are being poisoned in Mirror

MIRROR — RCMP in central Alberta are investigating the possibility of poisoning in the suspicious deaths of a number of wild and domestic animals.

MIRROR — RCMP in central Alberta are investigating the possibility of poisoning in the suspicious deaths of a number of wild and domestic animals.

Sgt. Geoff Buxcey of the Bashaw detachment said over the last couple of months, several pets and wild animals have died of questionable circumstances in the small village of Mirror, about 50 km northeast of Red Deer.

Buxcey won’t say exactly how many have died, but confirms there are less than 10 cases being investigated.

RCMP are awaiting toxicology reports.

Windy Toews, one of Mirror’s approximately 500 residents, says she is still scarred after watching her two-year-old dog, Charlie, die on her floor last month.

Toews says she’s glad an investigation is finally underway as she hasn’t been able to explain Charlie’s death to her daughter.

“She does a lot of crying and she won’t sleep in her own bed,” said Toews. “My biggest hope is that this doesn’t happen again.”

Toews, who had been at church with her husband Grady and six-year-old daughter Desia, returned home and let the family’s two Labradoodles — Charlie and five-year-old Maggie — in from the backyard.

“Charlie was acting different — he was drooling bad and he went to walk past me and he just fell over and started seizing and seizing and seizing ’til he died,” said Toews.

“The way he died was not natural. It was one of the most horrible things I’ve had to see.”

She said news of another dog’s untimely death the same day and the disappearance of her neighbour’s dog prompted her to report the incident to RCMP.

Weeks later, when the snow melted, Toews said she discovered what appeared to be a ball of meat wedged in the top of her backyard dog pen, which RCMP collected as evidence and sent off for testing.

“It feels like I’ve been robbed,” said Toews, who keeps Maggie indoors nearly all the time now.

“I can’t trust my own backyard for my daughter or my dog.”