Monrovia Police Department: No Poison In Meat Found on Norumbega

The Monrovia Police Department has announced that the suspicious meat packages found on Norumbega have been analyzed and there was no evidence of poisoning. 

The police department released this statement:

There has recently been concern about meat and other food items being discarded in the area of the Norumbega Loop. These concerns were shared with the Monrovia Police Department (MPD) and other City of Monrovia departments, including our contracted animal control partners, the Pasadena Humane Society (PHS). As a result, over the past month the Monrovia Police Department has responded to numerous calls for service and taken the suspicious meat packages and other food items as evidence. With the help of PHS, samples of the recovered meat were submitted for chemical testing at the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory at U.C. Davis. In addition a sample was sent by a private citizen to the same laboratory. We have now received all of these reports completed by the laboratory, which confirmed that there was no evidence of poison or other tampering in any of the submitted samples.

We hope that this news will assuage any fears that any person(s) is/are deliberately attempting to poison or harm any animals, either domestic or wild. It appears the person(s) is/are simply attempting to feed wildlife in the area. Feeding or attempting to feed wildlife is a violation of Monrovia Municipal Code section 6.30.010 , which states that "No person shall feed or in any manner provide food for one or more non-domesticated mammalian wildlife, including but not limited to bears, deer, mountain lions, coyotes, raccoons, opossum, mice, rats, skunks, squirrels or feral cats." 

We will continue to monitor the situation and work with our partners at PHS as needed to abate the problem. If anyone sees someone leaving meat or other food out for wildlife in violation of MMC 6.30.010, please contact our MPD Communications Center at 256-8088 for a police response. With regards to any meat or other food items found by citizens, at this point we believe it would be safe to treat it as garbage and dispose of it accordingly. Should any citizen not feel comfortable doing this, MPD will respond and collect the meat or other food item as provided for under our policy manual. As always, contact the us with any questions or concerns about this issue.

- Brad Haugaard