3 days ago
‘Allowing us to give her love': Dog shot and killed in Medina
MEDINA, Ohio (WJW) — David and Deb Mast were in the living room of their Medina home early Friday afternoon when Deb said something outside caught her attention as it went around the side of their house.
'I just saw just the tail of it and I thought it was the neighbor's dog,' she told Fox 8.
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Her husband went to investigate
'It was kind of walking aimlessly along the back fence there at the back of our property and just limping along,' David said.
'It was just walking along the back, and we were yelling to it, and it acted like it wasn't hearing us, no response, not responding to us at all,' Deb said. 'I think her left leg in the back here rear leg, she wouldn't really put it down on the ground, like it was broken.'
The couple said that despite her injuries, the dog was very friendly and allowed them to ease her onto a tarp.
After several calls, they were able to contact the Medina County SPCA, which eagerly took the dog and transported it to a veterinarian, where it was learned she had been shot.
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'They found out that the bullet that was in her leg, which was a small caliber firearm from a pistol, cracked the bone and also tore her ACL. There was also some testing done that showed other underlying things as well,' said Medina County SPCA Director Sarah Urquhart. 'She was still allowing us to pet her and give her love and compassion, unfortunately, due to the injuries that she sustained, she did have to be euthanized.'
The dog was chipped and its owner was located about a half mile away from the Mast's home.
They learned her name was Stella, a 13-year-old pit bull terrier, who had been adopted by her new family only about three months earlier.
Urquhart said Stella broke free from her tether while she was outside to use the bathroom, and her owners had been looking for her for about 2-3 hours.
The Masts said Stella appeared to be underweight and eagerly accepted food and water from them. Urquhart said that could be attributed to her age and some other underlying conditions.
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There were additional concerning questions that made the animal warden want to investigate more into Stella's history before she was recently adopted. But what they really would like to determine is who is responsible for shooting the dog and why.
'It's surprising. I wouldn't have thought that was an injury that would happen in this area here, really,' David said.
'If anyone knows anything or heard anything on Friday, May 30, between 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. in that vicinity of Walnut and East Washington. If you heard anything, you think it was a gunshot, a firecracker, or saw anything suspicious, please contact our humane officer here at the shelter, or you can contact the medina city police department,' Urquhart said.
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