Needles, metal in food found on popular Canton dog walking route

By Maurielle Lue
Fox 2 News

CANTON, Mich. (WJBK) -- Dog walking in Canton's Central Park neighborhood has become dangerous.  More and more of the people that live there think someone is trying to kill their pets.

"We found pieces of candy with metal in them, as well as this last time there were various pieces of meat, like ham and beef, with metal in them," said Clarence Baker.  "The concern is that they want to kill your dog."

For months residents have been finding raw meat and pieces of chocolate stuffed with needles and chunks of metal carefully placed around five trees along a popular route for dog walkers.

"We filed three police reports.  We want some trail cameras put out here that will take infrared pictures late at night to see who's out here doing this because they're doing it late in the evening or first thing in the morning," Baker said.

Detectives on the case aren't sure if the suspect is targeting pets or wild animals.  One man told police he spent thousands of dollars at a vet after his dogs ate raw meet stuffed with needles.

"They both had to have exploratory surgery.  Thousands of dollars incurred, and his dogs were laid up for a month," said Baker.

Police told me they are confident that the person who is doing this is not targeting children because the candy was mostly buried in a way that was easy for dogs to find.  Either way it is a crime, and police say anyone who knows anything should give them a call.