Dog Goes Missing, Returns Home Weeks Later Beaten with 2 Arrows Gouging Head
When you grow up on a farm, you realize how many natural factors are against you. If you’re trying to grow any type of crop, critters great and small will converge from land, sea, and sky to ravage your harvest.
If you have livestock, you quickly discover that there are predators out there ready to change them to dead stock and nab a tasty meal at the same time.
This is one of the many issues that mankind has had to deal with as we’ve progressed, developing better and safer ways to protect what’s ours. But that doesn’t mean that there are never any incidents now.
The issue of protecting your stock takes a grisly twist when the attacker looks wild but may not be. There’s no absolute proof that was the case for this story, but as you read you can see how it could be a factor.
A family in Sanilac County, Michigan, recently posted about their dogs on Facebook. Apparently, their two dogs got out, and while one came back it took the other one weeks to show up.
But it was the way the dog showed up that caused such an outrage. It’s difficult to tell exactly what happened when, but when the apparent shepherd mix showed up at home, he was in bad shape.
Deanna Lumley Sweet posted photos of the dog’s poor state on Jan. 12. The dog, named Marty, was her brother’s.
He had been wounded multiple times, and not all of his injuries were visible.
The most obvious problem was the two arrows sticking out of the dog’s head and neck. One had punctured midway down the dog’s neck, and the other one entered through the top of the neck and exited behind his left ear.
Honestly, it was a miracle that this dog was even alive. A nasty infection had taken hold where the arrows were, and Marty was clearly in pain.
Along with the puncture wounds, they soon discovered he had also been beaten and was missing teeth.
Over the weekend, authorities located a possible suspect who ended up confessing to having shot the dog twice with his crossbow.
His reason? The large dog had been attacking his goats.
That, in itself, is not unbelievable. There are plenty of stories of loose dogs harassing and slaughtering people’s livestock.
The dog even looks a little rough himself, and could’ve plausibly been mistaken for a coyote or wolf. But that doesn’t explain his other injuries, which would require close proximity and brute force.
And while it’s not clear whether or not his collar was on him at the time he was loose, you’d think the bright red would’ve flagged him as a pet, not a wild beast. Commenters are calling for the archer to be saddled with an appropriate punishment.
The last report on Jan. 14 was that the dog was doing OK and that he was being kept at the veterinarian’s until Monday. Hopefully he’ll fully recover and stick close to home after this nearly fatal escapade.
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