Posted on 12/06/2007 5:45:00 AM PST by jstassis
LOWELL, Mass. -- A local dog owner is devastated after her dog was shot and killed.
Michelle Verville was walking her dog, Smokey, in the Lowell-Dracut State Forest last week when she heard a gun shot. Smokey, a 4-year-old Labrador retriever, yelped and Verville noticed that her dog had been shot in the stomach.
"I just stayed there with him and told him that it was ok, and that we loved him and that he was a good dog, and then he passed," Verville said.
it is legal to hunt for deer in State parks from Nov. 26 to Dec. 8.
According to Verville, shortly after Smokey was shot a hunter came out of the woods, where it is legal to hunt for deer in State Parks from Nov. 26 to Dec. 8. The man claimed that he did not shoot the dog and left without trying to help the fatally injured canine.
State Environmental Police are investigating the incident.
A friend of mine had a hunter in her backyard! She and the neighbors feed deer year round and some jackass decided he'd take the easy way out. He is an idiot... no hunting within city limits, etc. I told her she should put this sign next to the private property one: Hunt here, die here.
I doubt the guy ‘mistook’ the dog for a deer. There’s too much of a size difference. There are two other possibilities. First, the dog may just have been in the line of fire and the hunter never even saw it. Second, some deer hunters will shoot any dog they see in the woods since they think the dogs will ‘run’ the deer. I’ve even read articles in deer hunting magazines on whether this is the right thing to do.
Where I hunt, any one who shot a dog would not be invited back.
BTW, in most states one is required to wear some orange while in the woods during deer season regardless of whether one is hunting or not. My state requires at least one square foot of orange, an orange baseball cap will do.
If you want to try hunting, ask your friends to take you along. Most hunters would welcome a new convert. If you don’t know any hunters, then you could try visiting your state conservation website where you might find some information on hunting for novice hunters. You could also visit your local sporting goods store. I would suggest the Mom and Pop variety and see if they can put you in contact with other hunters.
Or, if you want to lay out some big dollars, there are professional guides or hunting clubs that can fix you right up. Google might help here.
FYI. Deer hunting can be expensive. A rifle can cost anywhere from $350 to well over a thousand. Hunting clothing for cold weather can cost as much as the rifle. If you join a hunting club, expect to spend several hundred to more for hunting their land (very dependent upon location). Then there’s a bunch of other stuff if you get into it, four-wheelers, pickup trucks, the list goes on. Here’s a couple of websites you might find interesting;
www.cabelas.com
www.basspro.com
both are excellent if somewhat expensive sources of hunting gear and information. The information is free.
Wow, sure seems a lot of naive people here have never heard or taken the phrase “A shot across their bow” seriously in life....because it does happen.....
This happened to us some years ago, the day after Thanksgiving, while my 10 year old son and I were out walking..... on our own property! Some jackass shot our dog, a greyhound who I will admit looked like a deer, but a small one. The kicker was he shot him once, and when he started howling shot at him 5 more times. The dog ran off and we found his body a week later.
When we heard the shots and the howling we started yelling at the fool. He wasn’t far from us and we yelled that he was shooting our dog and he was on private property. He never answered, so I got my pistol out and let him know we were also armed.
The last time I was in the woods during deer season I met another hunter and asked him if he had seen any deer. He said no but he had got off a couple of sound shots.
Especially in snow conditions as they’re waiting for double overtime to kick in.
“If this idiot shot a dog, because he thought it was a deer, then he needs to have his rights taken away. “
Hunting isn’t a right and stupidity isn’t a reason to revoke someones rights. Committing a crime and being convicted is the only reason to take away someones rights.
But he is a complete idiot and should not be out hunting.
She is lucky the moron didn’t shoot her. The only good argument I’ve ever heard for gun control is that some people are too stupid to own a gun. This hunter is a perfect example. Won’t give up my rights because of their stipidity, though.
Double overtime??????.............
Here in NH, to be called a “Massachusetts hunter” is not a compliment.
Now that is scary......sound shots? Never in my life have I met anyone that did that and I have been hunting for 60 years.
I can say in that sixty years the closest calls I have had was deciding to hit the ground when I saw a deer running between myself and another hunter & I saw him swinging his gun on it. That being said there are a lot of people that have taken up hunting & fishing purely for the food factor in the last 30 years because if was part of their “culture” from whence they came..........
Hide your truck ping.
Euphemism for “laze about and pretend to work”.
Local road crews here are real good at that.
Especially during snow conditions.
(They had two of their trucks get ‘sucked’ magically into a ditch just outside my window last year.)
Avoid the woods, particularly state land.
In Maryland we had a some citydi*k from Baltimore that not only shot a German Shepard, but took it to the DNS Deer check in station.
There’s plenty of “hunters” that shoot at motion or noise.
“There are acres and acres of open land behind us, which is posted, “
Have you ever tried having them arrested for trespass? If so have the authorities ever responded?
I don’t disagree.
He’ll never be President now! Vice-President, maybe...
I suppose they are union as well.......
Where in the story does it say the dog wasn’t on a leash?! “Walking” her dog implis that it was. Sheesh.
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