A family is in mourning after a shotgun blast struck their beloved dog this week.
Tammi Beetlestone couldn't hold back the tears as she talk about getting home on Wednesday to a note from the SPCA informing she and her family that their dog had been the target of a shooting.
"It feels like someone in our family was murdered," said Beetlestone. "For them just to kill a family dog, it blows me away that someone could be so heartless. I don't understand people."
Their shepherd-lab cross, Marley, was in the critical care of a veterinarian after having escaped from its usual confines in the family's yard.
"There were shotgun pellets into her neck," said Beetlestone. "There were six different holes, and she couldn't breath on her own. The vet worked on her for eight hours and then called us to say the suffering was great, and the chances of survival were not good even if they did more surgery.
"We all came to the decision that we should put her down because she was suffering too much."
Bettlestone and children Mikayla, 11, and Brody, 7, all stayed home from work and school Thursday, so distraught were they.
The dog had been tied in its usual run in the family's yard on Bendixon Road in the Pineview area. However, because of all the piled-up snow, Marley was able to climb higher than usual and chewed through the rope that secured her.
Marley has a group of dog friends in the immediate neighbourhood. They all know each other and get along well on the road, said Beetlestone.
It is not known what Marley did after escaping. What is sure, however, is that Marley posed no danger to anyone.
"Marley was a sweet family pet," said Beetlestone. "She never bothered anyone."
No one has any idea who pulled the trigger.
"None of the neighbours said they saw the dog or heard the shot," said Prince George RCMP spokesman Cpl. Craig Douglass.
Police have had little to go on since there were no other cases like it dating back a month.
SPCA special constable Chad Bohanan said they were conducting an investigation, separate from but in co-operation with the police, and if the incident was a needless shooting then legal action was the option he would pursue.
"We received a call from a mail carrier who located the dog," said Bohanan. "When we found the dog we seized it and took it to the vet. It seemed like a very fresh wound. The dog had laboured breathing, bleeding from the neck and throat area, and very lethargic."
When asked if this dog was in fact prone to aggression, despite what the family said, he was definitive.
"Absolutely not. She was a sweet dog," he said. "If the public has any information, we would love to know it. There are absolutely better ways to deal with dogs. This was the wrong way to deal with things."
The police are warning the public that discharging a firearm inside the city limits, even a rural area within town, is illegal.
There are many considerations in such cases, said Douglass, ranging from the need to defend one's self or to defend one's livestock, from safe use of a firearm to animal cruelty possibilities, but using a gun to kill a dog was generally discouraged.
"Someone who shoots a dog unprovoked, even if the dog barks a lot, that is not a reasonable excuse," he said.
Signs have been posted at key locations in the Pineview neighbourhood hoping someone has information about the killing.
The Prince George RCMP can be reached at 250-561-3300 or contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS / www.pgcrimestoppers.bc.ca. The SPCA investigations office can be reached at 250-562-6990.
