“I don’t know who did this, what are the reasons, but it’s just horrible,” she said.
The event’s organizers canceled the race and quickly found the source of the poison: More than 50 meatballs, each with dark seeds inside, had been scattered around the parking lot, on the side of the road and around the bushes close to where the race would have begun, Dr. Poletti said. A fourth dog, a husky named Togo, exhibited similar symptoms after sniffing the vomit of one of the other dogs, but was recovering after receiving treatment at a veterinary clinic in Montpellier, France.
The prosecutor’s office in Nîmes opened an investigation on Sunday. Dr. Poletti said there had not been any threats made to the dogs beforehand. The dogs that died were due to run alongside their owners as they cycled.
In France, the offense of abuse or cruelty toward a domestic animal carries a five-year prison sentence and a fine of 75,000 euros (about $79,000), said Cécile Gensac, the public prosecutor of Nîmes, in a statement on Monday.
Yvon Lasbleiz, president of the International Canicross Federation, said in a statement on Monday that the dogs that died, Oslo, Palma and Opale, two German Shorthaired Pointers and a Belgian Shepherd, had been sources of unconditional love for their owners. “This weekend a particularly heinous act hit our sport and our whole community during the French Championship,” he said.
The fourth dog is recovering well, Dr. Poletti said on Thursday. “This morning he started to look like a normal dog, a happy dog,” she said, and spoke of her tears of joy when she saw how much he had improved.
