Woman caught on camera killing her neighbour’s dog by throwing poisoned meat over the fence

A woman who killed her neighbour’s dog by throwing poisoned meat over their fence was caught on camera just moments later as she tried to destroy the evidence.

Susan Foster, 60, deliberately laced a chunk of meat with anti-freeze and tossed it over the fence into Colin Stark’s garden where his doting German Shepherd Roxy ate it.

Roxy, who Colin had owned since she was eight weeks old, spent four days in terrible pain and vomiting before vets decided to put her to sleep to end her suffering.

CCTV footage captured the moment Foster threw the food over the fence and then, just hours later, she was caught stealing the camera and trying to destroy the evidence.

Speaking for the first time after Foster was given a suspended sentence, Colin, 65, told how he confronted her after seeing the shocking footage.

He said: “I’m banging on her front windows, saying ‘give me my camera back.’

“My voice was quite loud, because I was really annoyed, and my wife said, ‘You need to stop shouting, just pack it in and call the police.’

“But within 30 seconds of her saying that, she came out with the camera, and a few words were then spoken to one another.

“She gave it back, and it’s got her on camera in her house, walking through her house."

Heartbroken Colin said he thinks of Roxy every day, adding: “Nothing can bring Roxy back, she was a lovely dog.

“We’ve got pictures of her. We’ve got one over the fireplace. It’s one the children gave us for Christmas.

“It says ‘the boss lives here’ because she was the boss of the house, and it’s a lovely picture of her just laying on the floor.”

How she was caught

The incident, which Colin said "came out of the blue", happened on June 12 when he noticed Roxy vomiting at his home in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, and later found strange bits of meat in his garden.

He said: “We kept an eye on Roxy. She wasn’t being her normal self. She was lethargic, she would just lay there.

“Over the course of the day, she was getting worse and worse.

“We then took her to the vets and took samples of the meat, and he said: ‘I think that’s poison’.”

Colin found shocking CCTV footage that showed Foster throwing the toxic food over her 6ft fence and onto his property.

Foster then tried to destroy the evidence by stealing his camera just hours after she had set her poisonous trap.

He said: “I played it back after Roxy had been put to sleep, and on my laptop I could see something coming over.

“I thought ‘Was that a bird or something?’ and then I played it back slower, and you could see it was things being thrown over the fence.

“The camera’s got an alarm trigger, so it detects motion, and it set off a trigger on my phone at 11:45 pm on Saturday.

“I looked at the alarm, and at first I couldn’t work out what it was.

“Then I realise it’s a hand, and it’s her hand going all over the camera, and then eventually, her face appears on the camera.”

What sentence Susan Foster was given

Since the attack, Colin said Foster had “vanished” and had later gone on to sell her bungalow.

But he did come face to face with her again during a trial at Grimsby Magistrates’ Court where she was later convicted for killing his dog.

During the hearing, the court heard from an expert veterinary witness who concluded Roxy had been caused to suffer after ingesting antifreeze, also known as ethylene glycol.

The expert believed the clinical signs that Roxy displayed on June 14-16 were consistent with her having consumed the substance on or around June 12.

Along with her suspended sentence, Foster was ordered to carry out 15 Rehabilitation Activity Requirement days.

She was also disqualified from keeping all animals for 12 months and ordered to pay £2,040 in court costs, £627 compensation to Roxy’s owners and a £120 victim surcharge.

‘Nothing can bring Roxy back, she was a lovely dog’

But Colin feels she should have been punished more severely as the poisonous meat could have killed his other dog as well.

He said: “We got justice, but very lenient justice.

“We’ve got two dogs, and she wasn’t just trying to get rid of one of them, she was trying to get rid of both of them.

“With an intent like that, I think she should have got at least five years plus straight away. You look at America – you should see what they get.

“Nothing can bring Roxy back, she was a lovely dog. I think about her every day.”

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