For those in the B.C. Canada area, here’s a story in the news today that you really need to read. It was one of today’s Top Story at CTV.ca.

Police investigate possible B.C. dog poisoning

Police are warning dog owners to be careful in a Burnaby, B.C. city park after a dog died from what officers say could have been a poisoned stick.

Jamie Walton arrived home Friday night from a walk with his two French mastiffs near the Kensington Sports Complex, and one of them suddenly became very sick.

“He started choking, started going downhill,” said Walton of the three-year-old mastiff, Jada.

Walton took Jada to a vet, but the dog died that night. That’s when he called the police.

“She died an hour and a half on the table,” he said.

Because of the symptoms — and the speed of her death — the vet concluded Jada was probably killed by poison.

The vet called the police, who started an investigation.

“It is believed that the dog may have picked up a stick while in the park and been poisoned by a substance on the stick,” said Cpl. Alexandra Mulvihill of the Burnaby RCMP.

RCMP officers went to the park and seized several sticks and took them in for testing.

Walton is now waiting for the results of an autopsy on Jada to see if she was indeed poisoned.

Those results will likely be ready tomorrow, along with the results from the other sticks collected in the area.

“I believe that it was 95 per cent poison, and five per cent heart attack,” said Walton.

The incident bears chilling similarities to a horrifying episode of dog poisoning in Toronto in June, where two dogs died and four others were sick after someone deliberately spread poison through High Park, a large area in Toronto’s West End.

One of the ways the poison was distributed was in a liquid poured over whole wheat bread and flax seed.

The poisonings drew harsh condemnation from Ontario’s premier, who said he was outraged at the deliberate poisonings and called the culprit a “sick individual.”

Word that someone may be lacing sticks with poison is disturbing news to dog walkers in the park.

“If I ever caught the guy I’d make him eat the stick,” said one man to CTV News.

Police say that if you see anything suspicious in the park, or if your dog becomes sick, to contact them immediately at 604-294-7922.

With a report from CTV British Columbia’s John Fenton