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Amanda Butterfield and Andrew Adams reporting Emergency dispatchers received several calls Thursday about a dog being thrown from an overpass onto I-15. We tracked down the dog, the owner and the woman who rescued it from the freeway.
According to witnesses, a man in a red Ford truck stopped, took the dog and threw it onto oncoming traffic. The dog, a 1-year-old boxer, survived.
Seven has already been in surgery for a broken jaw. She has blood in her lungs, and she'll be staying at the vet clinic a few days; but her owner, Haley Savage, says, "She's doing really well for what happened."
Savage can hardly believe what happened. She was at work when she got a call that her dog was found wandering on 1-15 near the 3900 South overpass. She had just been thrown off the overpass.
"I started bawling, of course. I couldn't comprehend that someone could actually do something like that," Savage said.
Plenty of drivers saw Seven get tossed from above and called 911. Callers said the man who threw the dog off was driving a red Ford truck with a rack.
Monique didn't see it happen, but she was driving on I-15 and rescued Seven. She says, "We were driving along, then all of the sudden stopped traffic, wondered why, and here comes Seven wandering down the freeway."
She and a man corralled Seven into her car, took her to the vet, and reunited the dog with Savage.
"I was just thrilled to see the dog was so excited to see her. The whole trauma seemed like nothing once the dog saw Haley," Monique said.
Savage said, "That just shows you there are two types of people in the world, someone who would risk their lives to save another creature, and someone who wants to hurt them maliciously."
Haley can only conclude that Seven somehow got out of her fenced yard, and someone in the red truck picked her up and dumped her.
Seven will stay at the clinic a few more days, costing Haley upwards of $1,500. But after surviving the fall onto oncoming traffic, her name might be changed to "Lucky Seven."
Utah Highway Patrol says 'a red Ford truck' isn't enough information to pursue a criminal investigation; they would need a license plate number to turn it over to police.
If you would like to help with the medical bills you can send a donation to:
Cottonwood Animal Hospital
6360 Highland Dr.
Salt Lake City, UT 84121-2108
You can also call the animal hospital at(801) 278-0505. You just need to say the donation is for Seven.
E-mail: abutterfield@ksl.com
E-mail: aadams@ksl.com
