ALBANY - A 41-year-old man who neighbors said recently had been complaining about barking dogs has been accused of using a dangerous controlled pesticide to kill one of their pets. <br>
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John Wesley Thompson was arrested yesterday on two misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals. He is charged with killing one dog and permanently disabling another December Seventh. <br>
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U.S. Department of Agriculture officials are investigating how Thompson was allegedly able to obtain a chemical called Aldicarb/Temik that only specially licensed farmers are authorized to possess. <br>
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Police say Thompson is accused of feeding the two animals hot dogs he had split down the middle and laced with the chemical, a granulated substance that looks like pepper. <br>
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Thompson often fed scraps of food to dogs in the neighborhood, said Monte Bainter, the owner of the dog that died. Neighbors were suspicious when they found their yards and pickup-truck beds littered with hot dogs. <br>
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Monte Bainter, the owner of the dog that died, says a neighbor told him Thompson threw something to the two dogs before the animals got sick. <br>
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In the days before the dogs were poisoned, Bainter says Thompson had been complaining about the dogs barking at him while he rode his bicycle at night.
