Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
WEST JORDAN – A family is looking for answers after their dog was fatally shot with a pellet gun. It's the second case of animal abuse in a week.
The Cruz family lives in West Jordan where they say everyone loved their dog Shaggy. Friday morning, he got out of the backyard, like he sometimes did, but when he came home they knew he wasn't OK.
“Shaggy wasn't moving,” Claudia Cruz said. “He was just sitting there. He was just lying there.”
After taking a closer look, they could tell the mini schnauzer had been shot by something, so they rushed him to the vet, who confirmed the dog had been wounded by a pellet gun.
“He was in shock, he wouldn’t move,” Cruz said. “You could tell that he was having a hard time breathing.”
They were told the pellet was in an area where they couldn’t remove it and that it shouldn’t cause a problem for Shaggy in the future. Cruz said the vet explained to her that the pellet had hit a vessel, which caused fluid to go into his lungs, so Shaggy was put on oxygen.
“We got a call at 6:30 in the morning on Sunday that they were performing CPR on Shaggy, and he didn't make it,” an emotional Cruz said.
“I did not think that a pellet gun would cause this much damage,” she said. “We really thought that we were going to bring him home on Sunday.”
She reported the incident to police and West Jordan Animal Control, but they can't do much without a suspect.
Cruz said the day before Shaggy was shot, her nephew was walking down the street in West Jordan when someone shot at him with a pellet or a BB gun from a passing SUV.
The Cruz family hopes by spreading their story someone will say something about who did this to their dog.
“He was just a good dog, and I think that's why we're having such a hard time with it, is because Shaggy was just such a great dog," she said.
Contributing: Viviane Vo-Duc
