Residents say dog poisonings have resumed at The Lakes

Police are investigating allegations that deliberate dog poisonings have resumed in a western Las Vegas neighborhood, and a $10,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to the capture of the person responsible.

Residents of the neighborhood say more than a dozen pets have been injured, including at least four that died.

The alleged poisonings, which date back at least eight years, start and stop.

“We’re always worried that he’s going to start up again,” said Sean Cornwall, a resident of The Lakes, noting that neighbors have reported two dog poisonings in the last couple of months.

Cornwall believes someone targeted his dogs in 2017 and 2019, killing two and harming two others.

So he regularly walks the neighborhood to talk to dog owners and pass out flyers. The latest warned: “The poisoner is back in The Lakes!”

Officer Larry Hadfield said Wednesday that officers with the Metropolitan Police Department’s Summerlin area command substation were investigating the allegations. He declined to comment further, but he described the probe as a “priority.”

Cornwall suspects a single perpetrator, whose modus operandi includes hiding toxic seeds and pesticide into meatballs, then throwing them over backyard walls, where unsuspecting animals eat them.

He said he reviewed home surveillance footage that showed someone throwing something over his backyard wall in March 2019, about 30 minutes before three of his dogs became ill. Leia, a 3-year-0ld Shih Tzu, died.

Afterward, Cornwall found orange and green seeds in a meatball. He said he believes another one of his puppies that died two years prior might also have been poisoned.

Residents previously have reported similar experiences. And as of this week, Cornwall had learned of at least 15 reported poisonings in the neighborhood.

He argued that Metro has not done enough to investigate the poisonings.

Soon after Leia died, Cornwall began raising funds to offer a reward to any tipster that led police to an arrest and conviction. He said people have donated $3,000 and that he threw in an additional $2,000 out of his own pocket. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said it would match the $5,000, an offer that still stood, the animal advocacy group wrote in a statement Thursday.

Las Vegas City Councilwoman Victoria Seaman, who has been in contact with Cornwall, said in a phone interview Thursday that she was “really heartbroken to see that these despicable acts have returned.”

Seaman, whose Ward 2 encompasses The Lakes, said she was concerned that the perpetrator could cause more harm. For instance, she said, a small child could accidentally fall victim to a poisoning.

Residents have asked Metro to install police cameras in the neighborhood, although it was not clear if they had been approved, said Seaman, noting that the agency was taking the poisoning reports “very seriously.”

Seaman said “the main thing” was getting residents in the area who might have seen something suspicious to come forward.

“I’d like to see the perpetrator caught and held accountable once and for all,” she said.

Anyone with information may call Metro at 702-828-9400. To remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555 or crimestoppersofnv.com.

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @rickytwrites.