Skip to content

Threatened by shooting

At about 11 p.m. on June 8, someone stopped their truck by my driveway and shot my Pyrenees dog.

Dear Editor:

At about 11 p.m. on June 8, someone stopped their truck by my driveway and shot my Pyrenees dog. It was likely at nearly point-blank range. I was inside my house at the time and rushed out when I heard the shot. Sadly, I didn’t see the vehicle but it sounded like a pickup truck with a loud muffler. It drove away at high speed after spinning the tires in the gravel.

I live in the country near Usona, and I know what “the code” is. If my dog’s making trouble, then I understand completely if it needs to be “dealt with.” But this happened in my driveway. I was just going to try to forget about things, but as time progresses, the absolute wrongness of what happened keeps sinking in.

I had rushed my young dog to the vet, but he could not be saved. My thanks go to Dr. West for doing what he could. The next day, after some consideration, I thought I’d better let the RCMP know what had happened. Since there were no witnesses, of course, there is not much that they can do. That said, the RCMP member I spoke to was, indeed, surprised to hear of such a flagrant act, and confirmed that it is completely illegal, and not to mention reckless. Not the least of all this, of course, is that we lost a dear animal who had a heart of gold.

Now I’m finding out how difficult this incident has been for my kids. As for myself, I think (hope?) this is an isolated incident. However, the kids are now somewhat afraid to go outside. The area where the shooting happened is the area where they wait for the school bus every morning.

They want to put surveillance cameras out now, and at several angles to include passing traffic — with night vision capability of course.

So, I wanted to just vent a little to the community, I suppose. I don’t know if the perps were just drunk cowboys looking to spice up the Friday night routine of shooting mailboxes and signs. I would like to think a neighbour didn’t do it; at least in the past if they had a grievance they had the guts to come and talk to me.

Is there someone out there who will continue to shoot country dogs? I don’t know, but I do hope that people keep an eye on theirs because apparently it didn’t matter to somebody that my dog was at home. He was fair game anyway.

Bonnie Meikle