Dog owners are being warned to be on the lookout after a loving Lab ate a hunk of ham riddled with pins and needles – apparently left in Central Park to harm frolicking pooches.
“It was such a horror,” said Martha Redding, 38, whose dog, Milo, swallowed a couple of dozen of the pins after tearing into the 2-pound ham.
“Someone sat there and pushed every single pin into the ham.”
Milo, a former stray who loves to root for food during the park’s early-morning off-leash hours, found the meat, wrapped in brown paper and tied with a Christmas ribbon, lying on the grass just north of the park’s Columbus Circle entrance at about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday.
“When I wrenched what I could out of his mouth and I looked at what was left, I saw all those needles,” Redding said.
She rushed Milo to her vet, who fed the dog three large cans of food and then induced him to vomit up the 30 needles he had swallowed.
“I think it’s a deliberate act to harm something, and a dog would be the most likely choice,” said the vet, Dr. Andrew Kaplan. “Pins and needles were deliberately stuck through” the ham.
If left untreated, a dog could die from internal infections resulting from the needle damage, he said.
Worried about other possible attacks, the Central Park Conservancy is warning 3,000 dog owners in the area to be watchful for suspicious packages. Parks police have also been told to keep an eye out, spokeswoman Amelia Alonso said.
“This is the first we’ve ever heard of anything like this,” she said.
The perpetrator could be charged with animal cruelty, ASPCA Special Agent Joseph Pentangelo said.
“I’ve heard about chemical poisoning – people who are annoyed about cat colonies in their area or people getting tired about dogs urinating in front of their houses,” he said.
“I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Whoever set the twisted trap needs help, she said.
“It reminds me of all those thriller movies of serial killers who start by hurting animals,” she said. “It’s that chilling malice.”