Cruz, a 3-year-old Samoyed who competed in his first Westminster earlier this month, died Feb. 16 while competing in another dog show in Colorado. Both the dog's co-owners believe the the dog was poisoned.
"It is in the realm of possibility," Lynette Blue said after Cruz became sick and vomited blood before dying.
"We have gone through all the steps of where he was, what was done, and he was always on a leash," said Blue, 67, who has co-owned Cruz since birth and has raised and shown the furry, snow-white breed of dogs since the 1960. "He was never outside. He was always with the handler."
All the symptoms are consistent with poisoning and Cruz's handler, Robert Chaffin, said he thought animal activists were to blame.
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Chaffin, whom Blue says she "absolutely" does not suspect was involved in Cruz's death, is convinced that the dog was poisoned and said there was a four-hour window during which the dog could have been poisoned, but not by a competitor. Instead, Chaffin said he is suspicious of an animal rights activist he encountered at the dog show who "was just scowling at me and telling me how cruel I was."
Members of some animal rights groups criticized the shows in the past. PETA co-founder and president Ingrid Newkirk said "it makes no sense whatsoever " that an animal rights proponent would harm an animal.
The dog was cremated and a necropsy was not performed. The death could be from rat poisoning said medical experts.
"We can't figure out a timeline where it could have happened while he was in the room or being walked," said Blue, who said she had no insurance policy on Cruz.
"Dogs are dogs. It's not anyone's fault," said Molly Cominskey, the vet who treated Cruz." They eat stuff, they get into things, they make bad decisions."
Cruz was one of 33 Samoyeds competing in the Westminster and did not win any prizes.
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