Bucks County family says their dog was poisoned

Levittown, Pa. (WTXF) - A family says their dog named Gilligan was minding his own business in his yard when tragedy struck. According to his owners, someone targeted their beloved dog and gave him a fatal dose of rat poison.

Each and every Friday, Sue McCallion visits a Feasterville cemetery to spend time with her 29-year-old son, Matthew, remembering all too painfully the phone call she received on May 17th of last year.

"Saying that he took his life," she said.

Amid the gravesite flowers and mementos is a tiny photo of the Mccallion's family dog: a 5-year-old husky named Gilligan.

"Everybody loved him. Loved him!"

Apparently not everybody.

Sue had just put Gilligan outside on the night of June 16 to run around the backyard of their Levittown home when there came a strange noise.

"Heard like a flop or a bang at the back door-- my back door was open. Looked, there he was laying on the deck. Took two yelps and died," McCallion said.

Sue immediately called the Bristol Township police.

"I knew he was poisoned."

The McCallions paid for an autopsy which confirm the dog's cause of death as "exposure to a neurotoxic rodenticide," which is rat poison.

"It is sad! An innocent animal!"

Sue believes the killing of her dog is linked to her son's suicide. She won't say why. Frustrated with few answers from police she is posting fliers near her Levittown neighborhood, asking for anyone with information to step forward.

There's $500 for information leading to an arrest and conviction.