A community alert has been issued after the discovery of sausage embedded with fishhooks at a largely residential intersection in Alexandria, Virginia, Friday morning, prompting concern for dog owners in the area.
According to the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria’s Twitter post, a person walking a dog in the area of Duke Street and Ingram Street around 9:30 a.m. found what appeared to be a piece of sausage with a fishhook in it.
After reporting the incident to Animal Services, officers arrived, canvassed the area and found a total of nine pieces of sausage with fishhooks embedded in them.
“This is a very egregious act,” AWLA’s chief of Animal Services Tony Rankin told WTOP. “To put something like a fishhook in a piece of meat like that, it’s something that a large dog could swallow very quickly. It could lead to serious gastrointestinal issues and complications that require emergency surgery. Even small dogs are at risk because they could bite on something like that, and the hook can get embedded in the palate of their mouth, or in their gum line, and cause serious injury.”
Rankin said this is a “quite uncommon” occurrence in the area — in fact, it’s the first of its kind that he has seen in his 20-plus year career in animal control.
Though an investigation is still ongoing, Rankin attributes the act to a “hatred of animals” or just plain evil.
Attempting to maim or kill fowl or animals is a Class 1 Misdemeanor which can have a sentence of up to 12 months in jail and a fine of up to $2,500, according to state law.
“It’s no question that whoever put this out had every intention of trying to harm animals,” Rankin said, noting that the threat of harm exists not only for domesticated dogs but for wildlife such as foxes, opossums and raccoons.
“There’s really just no justification for this,” he said.
Rankin said that it is important to pay attention to what your dog is doing while you’re out on a walk, a belief echoed by veterinary behaviorist Amy Pike.
The AWLA is asking anyone in the vicinity with security camera footage — such as Ring camera recordings — to review and report any findings to the league at 703-746-6000 or animalservices@alexandriaanimals.org.
A map of the area where the fishhook-embedded sausages were found is below.
