Forget the Hotdogs. DEP Charges Canine Poisoning. What’s Wrong With the Water in Windsor?

Here’s a news release from the DEP about the arrest of a brainiac in Windsor.

“The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Environmental Conservation Police  (EnCon) have arrested a 49-year-old man on charges that he used chemicals to kill wildlife.The man, William Bednarz of Windsor, was released on a promise to appear and is scheduled to appear in court on May 4, 2010 at Superior Court in Enfield. An investigation into the presence of a dead coyote in Windsor this November led EnCon police and DEP Pesticide Program investigators to question Bednarz.  He allegedly admitted to placing hot dogs baited with Furadan, an agricultural pesticide, in and around his crop fields in an attempt to kill raccoons, which he believed were causing damage. The investigation began when a woman walking her dogs along Great Meadow Rd., Windsor, discovered the dead coyote adjacent to the Farmington River.   Allegedly two of her dogs, a pit bull and Labrador retriever, gnawed on the decaying carcass and quickly became violently ill.  The Labrador retriever ultimately died, and the owner contacted the DEP Pesticide Program to request a follow-up investigation.   From tests on the dogs and the coyote, investigators from the DEP Pesticide Program unit and EnCon Police, working with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, were able to determine that the coyote had been poisoned with Furadan.The use of Furadan, also known as Carbofuran, is controlled by federal and state regulations.  It is designed to protect field crops, such as corn, potatoes and tobacco from insects, and is extremely poisonous if used for any purpose other than its intended use.”