Your dogs appear to be safe, Charlestown residents.
Cops said they arrested the landscaper who was allegedly spreading anti-freeze laced hot dogs on a lawn to poison dogs.
Kenneth Hyland, 53, of Everett, will be arraigned Monday in Charlestown District Court. He was arrested Friday, police said.
A person reported to police that Hyland was cutting a lawn on Medford Street Sunday evening and started spreading pieces of hot dogs from a bucket with a blue-green solution in it around the lawn, according to a police report.
The neighbor told police he or she thought the solution was antifreeze and confronted Hyland.
The neighbor asked Hyland if he was trying to poison the dogs and, according to the neighbor, Hyland said yes.
An argument ensued and the neighbor left the area, but returned to collect the hot dog pieces.
The neighbor alerted other residents of the incident and they went to the police station to report it.
The collected hot dogs were turned over to police as evidence and two detectives were assigned to investigate, according to the report.
Area dog owners are in disbelief over the incident.
“Everybody is just kind of on high alert and sort of freaked out,” said Michelle Fournier, the owner of Durty Harry’s dog wash and shop in Charlestown. “You can’t even wrap your head around it.”
Fournier said worried dog owners are calling her shop to ask that their dogs not be walked in the area where the poisonous hot dogs were found. She said she’s heard about dogs that have recently become sick.
“The Charlestown community is such a dog friendly community,” she said. “We take this really, really seriously.”
