ohmidog!

Two pit bull puppies died after they were apparently poisoned during a pit bull awareness event in Central Pennsylvania.

The event, sponsored by A Darrah Bull Bully Rescue, was held on Saturday at Legion Park in Hollidaysburg.

Suspicions are someone snuck poison into water bowls, killing two dogs and harming three others that appear to be recovering, according to WeAreCentralPa.com. (Its video report can be found here.)

“The puppies evidently were an easy target,” said Renae Metz, one of the founders of A Darrah Bull Bully Rescue. “We aren’t going to turn people down when they offer to put water in their pen, we never imagined that someone would be this malicious.”

The group regularly takes in abandoned pit bulls and finds them homes.

“There are a lot of people that are against this breed and it’s pure ignorance and lack of knowledge about the breed,” Metz said.

Metz said the organization will no longer bring puppies to the pit bull awareness events, but that its work would continue.

“We want to press on and save as many dogs as we can,” she said. “This just turned us on to the fact that so many people are hateful and we just need to keep spreading the word that these are not bad dogs at all.”

An autopsy confirmed that it was likely a poisonous substance that killed two of the puppies.

Metz said one of the eight-week-old puppies began acting strangely Saturday afternoon during the event: “His stomach was bloated, he had glazy eyes and couldn’t hold his head up.”

“They were at the vet Thursday and all were completely healthy,” said Metz, whose group is offering a $1,000 reward in connection with the case.