Poisoned Meatballs Kill California Woman's Dogs

INSIDE EDITION talks to a woman who was distraught when her dogs died, but became outraged when she was told that a neighbor had poisoned them.

Like any pet lover, Gaylyn Trovar was completely shattered when her dogs passed away. Her anguish quickly turned to outrage, however, when she learned that her pets were actually poisoned by a neighbor.

Trovar was horrified to discover that someone had tossed meatballs laced with strychnine into the backyard where her six dogs played.

She suspected a neighbor planted the poison, because she had received several letters threatening to kill the dogs if she didn't keep them quiet.

Coco, a Chihuahua mix, was special to Trovar because he was a living link to her daughter, Dominique, who was killed in a car accident two years ago.

"Dogs don't take the place of my daughter, but they're my family," she said.

Although Coco survived the crash, she couldn't survive the deadly poison that's often used to kill rats.

While searching her backyard for clues, Trovar found two more poisoned meatballs. But she missed one, and tragedy struck again: one of her other dogs ate it and died.

"It really killed me. I felt like I missed something in the backyard," said Trovar.

After an exhaustive search of the neighborhood, cops arrested a man who lives a block away from Trovar.

Shockingly, the neighbor is a retired police officer! His name is Earl Ainsley, and cops say they found evidence in his house tying him to the dog deaths.
    
"He had no right to take them from me," Trovar said of her neighbor.
    
Ainsley didn't respond to our requests for an interview. If he is charged and convicted of killing the dogs, he could get up to five years in the state penitentiary.

But Trovar says if Ainsley did kill her two pets, she wishes she could deliver her own brand of punishment:

"I get to cook meatballs in strychnine and shove them down his throat," she said.

Investigators are still gathering evidence in the case.