Two beloved dogs are dead after a baiting spree in Adelaide’s south

A number of dogs in Adelaide’s south appear to have been deliberately poisoned and the RSPCA says a “serious loophole” in the law makes it hard to prosecute the culprits.

Dog owners in Adelaide’s south are on high alert after reports of two deceased animals and a number of ill dogs believed to have been poisoned.

Over the weekend, a one-year-old puppy named Marlee was found unresponsive in her Morphett Vale home and later died.

Five weeks earlier her sister Mia also died after showing symptoms of poisoning.

Marlee’s family said in a Facebook post that they had CCTV footage, taken the day the dog died, of Marlee barking at the fence as something appears to be thrown over. The footage shows Marlee sniffing and eating something from the ground.

RSPCA SA spokeswoman Carolyn Jones confirmed they had received 20 baiting reports in the past four months but it was difficult to prosecute offenders, sparking calls for a law change.

Christie Downs mum Kristie Allen said she and her son witnessed their two-year-old border collie Lyrics’ seizure after she was baited in their backyard in March.

“I was working from home and I just heard my son screaming to come out the courtyard,” Ms Allen said.

“Her back legs had just collapsed and I thought it was some sort of impact injury, like she had jumped off our trampoline.

“We raced her straight to the vet where every vet stopped what they were doing do check her over.

“She was just in so much shock and they couldn’t pinpoint what was exactly wrong so they basically told us to say our goodbyes. We were devastated.”

Two-year-old border collie Lyrics was the victim of a dog bait attack in Adelaide’s south. Picture: Supplied

Ms Allen said the vets were able to stabilise Lyrics and ruled out any impact or bite injury.

“I was able to bring her home and I watched her like a hawk for 24 hours; I actually had to hold her back legs up so she could pee,” Ms Allen said.

“The vets put it down to baiting – they believe she ate whatever it was but threw it up immediately and by her not digesting it … probably saved her life.”

Ms Allen said she made her backyard “fortress like” to prevent baiting but believed there might be someone in the area targeting dogs.

“My neighbour who doesn’t have a dog found meaty, bait-like stuff in her backyard but didn’t think anything of it,” she said.

Lyrics is now home and on the mend. Picture: Supplied

“I have also been noticing a lot of dead birds lately which is just either a massive coincidence or someone is out to bait dogs.”

Ms Jones said prosecuting these cases was difficult and there needed to be a change to the law in SA.

“Investigators need to prove suspect products contain poison, an animal became sick or died as result of being deliberately poisoned or an identified individual was witnessed leaving poisoned food items accessible to animals in either private or public places,” she said.

“Under SA’s laws, an animal would need to have ingested the poisoned food and be proven to have suffered harm as a consequence in order to prosecute.

“This is a law we want changed to align with other states’ animal welfare laws, where intention to cause harm to an animal is sufficient ground for prosecution.

“To have to wait for an animal to suffer harm before being able to prosecute someone who has demonstrated through actions (such as the laying of poisoned meat in an area accessible to animals) clear intent to deliberately harm an animal is a serious loophole in our animal protection laws.”

Marlee and Mia’s owners were contacted for comment.