Two men who poisoned birds and a dog at Alexandra Lake on Wanstead Flats in March this year were jailed for four months each and fined £7,000 at Snaresbrook Crown Court today. Terrance Webb, 28, of Ilford and Mark Page, 35, of Romford, were both pest control officers for Newham Council.
They stole pesticide normally used to control fleas and cockroaches, put it into some bread and laid it around the lake during their lunch-hours, then, according to reports, laughed and joked that crows had eaten the bread and died.
Among the dead were geese, moorhen, crows and pigeons, and an Alsation. Pamela Rowe, 69, the owner of the dog, told the Evening Standard today:
“It was a twisted, evil thing they did. They were not teenagers, they were pest control officers. My dog died a violent horrible death, and he was completely innocent.”
UPDATE, TUESDAY: The Evening Standard today published a fuller account of Mrs Rowe’s anger, and published for the first time a picture of the ill-fated dog, a German Shepherd-setter cross, named Russett.