A Christchurch man fed up with dog poo left on his lawn has reassured the community in Belfast he hasn’t laced the lawn with cyanide, despite putting up a sign on a fence warning of the danger.

A sign was placed on a fence near a “memorial garden” and shared in a Facebook community group, serving as a warning to dog owners.

Christchurch police confirmed to chrislynchmedia.com they received complaints over the sign on Main North Road and were still investigating on Monday.

The sign read: “WARNING! Dog urinating (peeing) and desecration (pooing) repellent, in the form of cyanide, has been applied along this memorial garden. Train and control your dog & take it home to poo or pee, not here! Have some bloody respect. Vet is at the corner.”

Stan Hansen, who put up the sign, told chrislynchmedia.com “I received over 45 abusive threatening posts, one even stating I was ‘a dead man walking’, so we deleted ourselves from that Facebook group. We will most probably remove the memorial moving ahead. Just not worth the crap directed and deposited our way.”

The SPCA confirmed they haven’t received any complaints regarding the sign.

In a follow-up, Hansen posted, “we had a visit from CCC inspectors checking on our memorial garden. They confirm, no cyanide, only a suggestion of cyanide resemblance which was actually gib plaster, and of course we are very bad for suggesting cyanide. Easy. The memorial garden will now be removed, and the poppy fence painted over, flagpole removed, so bring your dogs to crap their little hearts out on the footpath.

“Thanks for all the personal threats of violence, and the other abuse. Real intelligent stuff. We thank everyone who has put their own family members’ crosses in the memorial garden. These will be available for you to pick up. We do hope all of you who threatened and abused us are now happy in your little small world.”

Christchurch City Council Head of Regulatory Compliance Tracey Weston said “The Council was made aware of the signs referring to the use of cyanide in Belfast on Saturday.

“A joint visit to the address was undertaken alongside officers from the Canterbury Community and Public Health team the same day.

“The person who placed the signs was identified and was subsequently able to satisfy the officers that no cyanide has been used. Officers directed that the signs be removed and gave words of advice regarding more appropriate measures to combat the issue of dog fouling.”