Rhode Island pet rescue says it was targeted with rat poison

Local news

“We honestly can’t believe that someone would come onto our property and do this.”

Rhode Island-based Vintage Pet Rescue co-founder Kristen Peralta noticed a plain pink substance on her front fence Monday morning. She was worried when she found out what it was.

“It felt like taffy or clay,” Peralta, who runs a shelter for homeless senior dogs, told Boston.com in an email. “About 20 minutes later I found another large piece on our fence downstairs, but this one had a wrap on it so I knew it was rat poison.”

Upon further inspection, Peralta said she found six “large pieces” of rat poison on the fence. She called the police and made a report, she says.

Peralta then told her husband, Marc Peralta, one of the founders of the nonprofit. He became worried.

“He had seen our dog, Bug, eat something pink earlier in the morning but didn’t know what it was,” Kristen Peralta said.

She rushed Bug to the vet, where they induced vomiting and gave the dog vitamin K, she said.

The couple founded Vintage Pet Rescue, which provides cage-free housing for older rescue dogs, after meeting at an animal shelter in 2013, according to the non-profit organization’s website.

Kristen Peralta said she has “no idea” who put the rat poison on the fence.

“We honestly can’t believe that someone would come onto our property and do this,” she said. “We just want to know why.”

The situation has made the couple “very angry and uncomfortable,” Kristen Peralta said, adding that they have installed new cameras and floodlights.

“We just want to make sure this doesn’t happen to us or anyone else again,” she said.