Why someone is repeatedly spreading raw chicken bones and waste under a fence near her home is a mystery to Wendy Ratel.
And Ratel, who has lived in Walnut Grove since 1997, is concerned.
It’s not only littering, it’s potentially dangerous, she believes.
“This has happened twice this week,” Ratel told the Times Tuesday. “We don’t know if it is tainted, however it is in a public place where animals and even children can get at it.”
She initially came across the chicken waste – laid down meticulously under the same fence at 95 Avenue and 209A Street – in August.
“It’s always in the same spot,” Ratel said.
“It’s raw chicken, and bones, and sometimes it has bread, and sometimes it has noodles, so it looks like someone has taken it out of their composting bin or their garbage and it’s obviously set. It’s not thrown.”
Ratel said she and her husband cleaned up the mess because they don’t know if it was “laced” with something potentially dangerous or fatal.
“Our dog, she’s out in the yard, and she’ll make a bee-line for it,” Ratel said.
“She smells it. Is it coyote throw fare? We know there are coyotes [that] go up and down that path. Whether they’re trying to kill the coyotes… I don’t know what they’re doing.”
Ratel has spoken to police, who told her they have “other issues way more important,” and she has talked to the Langley Animal Protection Society (LAPS) who informed her that it wasn’t their jurisdiction.
She added, “I talked to animal control and they told me if I could tell them who it is, they’ll go talk to them. But we don’t know. So I just don’t know what to do, at this point.”
Another concern is that the waste could attract wildlife to the area.
“Raw chicken isn’t going to harm a coyote,” Ratel said. “They’re just going to come and enjoy the snack. If it’s laced, on the other hand, there’s raccoons, there’s owls… and there’s kids, too. I hope a child wouldn’t come up and touch it.”
She wants to “get the word out just to be cautious.”