CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Residents are looking for answers after their pets and neighborhood animals suddenly started getting sick and dying.
It's happening on Palmetto Street. That's where people are saying several of their house dogs are becoming ill and a few cats have died. It's happening all in the span of just a few days.
"When six cats die, two injured and two dogs are injured, that's when we really began to worry," local resident Kirby Gasiorowsky said.
From one day to the next, Gasiorowsky dog's health went downhill.
"Over the past few days, he's [the dog] been tired, not eating, pretty lethargic," Gasiorowsky said about her pet. "His back, legs, have been giving out, and so if he tries to stand up, he would just fall down and like slip."
Gasiorowsky thought her dog was just aging, but when she got on Facebook, she learned that many residents up and down her road were either watching their pets suddenly get sick or worse, die.
One of those residents is Lisa Kelly, who said she saw two cats pass away in one day. She said the hardest part of witnessing an animal in pain is not being able to help in time.
"There was another solid gray kitty, again, in my backyard and it was probably one of the most pitiful things I've ever seen," Kelley said. "He was literally crawling, pulling himself with his front legs, back legs dragging."
Both residents filed police reports right away with concerns that someone might be poisoning the animals in their neighborhood, which was still taking its toll on pets and their owners.
"I actually had to go to work later that night and it was really hard leaving the house because I thought that he [the dog] was gonna be gone when I came back home," Gasiorowsky said.
Joel Skidmore with Animal Care Services said animal cruelty is unacceptable on all levels and can land someone behind bars. However, proving that someone is harming animals can get tricky.
"We don't have any suspects, and that's information that we rely on the public to help us with," Skidmore said. "If they have somebody in mind, it doesn't mean they're actually doing it, but it's at least a start for us."
"We can have those one-on-one conversations with the neighbors, go and have one on one conversations with people in the neighborhood."
Skidmore said if anyone has any information on who or what might be hurting these animals call ACS call center at (361) 826-2489.
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