By Tim Eberly
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Little green cubes started popping up in Blake Anderson’s back yard.
Then he found some covered with peanut butter.
Hmmm, that’s odd, Anderson thought.
With a little Internet dabbling, he discovered that those one-inch cubes looked just like a certain brand of rat poison. Anderson, 32, immediately suspected a neighbor was trying to kill Pete, his 4-year-old chocolate Labrador.
A couple of years ago, the same neighbor had filed enough noise complaints about Pete that the dog’s owner had to defend himself in a DeKalb County court.
Anderson hired a security company to install surveillance cameras that allegedly caught the neighbor on tape, tossing two small objects in the direction of Anderson’s yard.
Last week, DeKalb County police arrested the neighbor, 46-year-old John Groover, and charged him with felony cruelty to animals.
“It’s like that show, ‘To Catch a Predator,’ [but] doggy-style,” Anderson said.
When contacted, Groover referred questions to his attorney, David Zagoria, who said Saturday that his client is innocent and is looking forward to court so Groover “can be vindicated.” He would not comment further.
Pete, meanwhile, survived the alleged attacks.
He spent one night throwing up, Anderson said. Another day, he got rat poison pumped from his stomach.
Anderson maintained that Pete does not bark any more “than the average dog.” When Anderson went to court, neighbors on both sides of his house — Groover lives two doors down — went to court and defended him to a judge.
The judge “just threw the case out and told everybody to get along,” said Joe Gill, who lives next to Anderson and insists that Pete is not an excessive barker.
Anderson, meanwhile, now keeps Pete inside the house when and his wife are at work.
Copyright 2008 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution