Officials and animal specialists say the practice of baiting, or placing traps laced with strychnine or rat poison, has been commonplace among local farmers for more than three decades.

Traditionally, farmers will place the traps on their property to defend their animals from stray dogs that have earned a reputation for ravaging their livestock.

But recently some residents have come forward with stories about how their domesticated animals have exhibited characteristic side effects of poisoning after eating substances that resemble the traps.

On many occasions, the dog owners reported that their pets were killed on public beaches and property at a distance from any farm.

While officials have yet to confirm that the incidents are connected to farmers baiting land off their property, dog owners aren’t taking any risks.

Cindy Clayton, owner of the Tamarind Club in East End, looks after seven dogs at her establishment, a place patrons often frequent with their pets.

But since the surrounding community has been reporting the animal deaths, she has moved all but one dog from the property, housing them in locations where no such incidents have been reported.

The grassy lot in front of her establishment is usually lively with neighbourhood dogs and their owners on any given afternoon for “social time,” Ms. Clayton said.

But for now, that luxury has been suspended, she said.

“Immediately after the first dog was poisoned, we stopped letting [the dogs] have that social time on our property,” she said, adding that she also doesn’t walk her dogs to the beach at Josiahs Bay, for fear of rumoured traps along the road. “The chance of getting into poison on the road is just too great.”

She won’t walk her dogs again, or enjoy social time with pet owners, until it rains, washing away any traces of poison, she said.

Tessa Gunter, director of the BVI Humane Society, agreed that Ms. Clayton’s concerns are legitimate.

Ms. Gunter said that she recently has been contacted by both dog owners and farmers who blame each other for animal deaths.

“Killing [dogs], poisoning them, it doesn’t solve anything,” the humane society director said. “It just starts a war.”

On the other hand, she said that pet owners are often to blame when they allow their dogs to roam free, unattended.

“You’ve got this farmer now, who’s hopping mad his livestock gets killed by these dogs,” she said of the scenario. “[Poisoning is] wrong, but where’s the happy medium?”

Oftentimes, unattended dogs — both wild and domesticated — will pack together with others and exhibit rowdy behaviours.

“The dogs don’t do it for the food — they do it for the hunt,” she said of the common reports of livestock killings attributed to dogs.

Ms. Gunter said when someone contacts her about a dog being poisoned, she suggests the owner immediately force the dog to vomit by feeding the dog salt or peroxide, and then give the animal charcoal to neutralise its stomach.

The humane society director urges residents to contact her when a stray dog is spotted, so she can try to find it a home.

“I give every dog a chance to have a home — I don’t just put them down,” she said.    

The full article appears in the March 4, 2010 issue.