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Heather Road woman arrested after attempting to poison dog
By John J. Hopkins Times
An ongoing neighbor dispute over a dog's barking almost became lethal for the pooch when the animal ate a meatball laced with rat poison, a concoction Cheektowaga police say was cooked up by a disgruntled neighbor.
The dispute became malicious on December 29 when Charmaine M. Twarozek, 55, of 72 Heather Road was arrested after police investigated a complaint that the dog had been poisoned.
Susan Anderson of Mayfair Court told the Times that her husband, Michael, had placed their dog Roscoe into their fenced rear yard. When Roscoe began to linger near the Andersons' six-foot privacy fence along Twarozek's property, Michael called the dog.
As the dog approached, Michael noticed that the animal had picked up something near the rear fence in its mouth.
"He dropped a hardball-sized meatball at Mike's feet," Susan Anderson said. "Mike brought it in and asked, 'What do you make of this?' and I said, 'That's rat poison.'"
Anderson said that her husband took a flashlight to investigate and discovered two more meatballs along the fence that were laced with rat pellets similar to those found in the first meatball. That's when they called police.
Officers James Jenson and Dana Cadwallader investigated and found five additional meatballs containing the poison pellets.
Jenson then went to Twarozek's home. She spoke to Jenson from a garage door and the officer observed rat poison boxes in plain view in the garage. When Jenson asked Twarozek about the rat poison, she said she used it during the summer to deal with rats.
"She had already put her garbage out to the curb, which is not private property," said Captain John Glascott. "The officers scooped up the garbage bags and went through them."
Inside the garbage bags, police found a frying pan containing cooked ground beef and a rat poison pellet, additional rat poison packaging and pellets, packaging for ground beef, mail with Twarozek's name on it and a receipt for rat poison, dated October 15, 2006.
Twarozek faces two misdemeanor charges of animal cruelty under New York State's Agriculture and Marketing law. The charges include torturing or injuring an animal and poisoning an animal.
According to police, the dispute began in 2006 when the Andersons brought Roscoe home.
Twarozek apparently didn't like the dog's barking, and began to com- plain to police about the animal.
Cheektowaga police received four complaints from Twarozek about Roscoe.
"We have been over there several times on barking dog complaints," Glascott confirmed. "But, we've checked with the neighbors, and nobody except Twarozek has complained about this dog barking."
Neighbors told police that they only hear Roscoe bark when the mail or newspaper is delivered.
Because previous police investigations concluded that Roscoe isn't a nuisance animal, no action had been taken against the Andersons. Glascott said that Twarozek has complained to police about other neighborhood dogs.
"We and our neighbors have always had problems with her," Anderson said of Twarozek. "We've always
kind of written it off, but now we're dealing with whether the dog is going to live or not."
The Andersons contacted an emergency veterinarian and were advised to pour peroxide down the 21-month-old dog's throat to induce vomiting.
"The vet still wasn't sure, so we had to take Roscoe in on Saturday," Anderson said.
Roscoe is being fed a preventative medicine and faces another round of blood work next week.
Anderson said that she and her husband are not letting Roscoe roam in their yard by himself.
"My yard is a pretty good size, but now we have him on a retractable leash," Anderson said.
Her neighbor's actions have Anderson upset for more than what happened to Roscoe.
"We don't have children, but we have 20 nieces and nephews," Anderson said. "What if we have the kids over? You know how kids put things in their mouths."
The story has gained national attention. Cable television news channel CNN included information in its reports on Tuesday.
As police placed Twarozek into custody, her boyfriend became irate and verbally abusive toward officers. He was told several times to calm down, but he refused and continued his profanity-laced outburst. At one point, the man threw Twarozek's boots at officers and the patrol car.
Thomas M. Glowgowski, 55, of Cambridge Court was ultimately charged with disorderly conduct. He was booked and released on an appearance ticket.
Police say Glowgowski previously listed a home address in Fairfax, Virginia.
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