SHELLEY — The owners of a 2-year-old Belgian Malinois are looking for answers after their support animal was shot, causing her to have her leg amputated.
Duchess, a registered support animal for Tyson Carnahan, lost her leg after being shot on April 7, leaving a bullet lodged in her sternum only half an inch from her heart.
Carnahan says the incident happened between 9:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. after Duchess broke loose from his yard near Quigg Avenue and West Oak Street in Shelley.
“My dad called me about 9:30 a.m., and he said, ‘Hey, I think your dog might be loose, go get her,’” says Carnahan. “I’m looking through the field, and all I see is her whimpering back, and there’s a blood trail.”
Carnahan says Duchess was out of the yard for about 15 minutes, and when he found her, he saw she had been shot from behind, noticing a bullet hole and a large trail of blood coming from her back right leg.
“I picked her up and put her in the back of my little white Dodge Dakota and just drove as fast as I could to the vet, and they performed surgery,” says Carnahan. “Her amputation on her back right leg (was) pretty traumatizing.”
Carnahan says the vet found the bullet lodged in Duchess’s sternum, giving him a tough decision to make: whether or not to have surgeons try to remove the bullet or leave it inside.
“(The injury) was bad enough with the amputation of her back leg that they didn’t want to perform the further surgery because I didn’t want to lose my dog,” says Carnahan. “She was losing enough blood as it was they we would’ve had to put her down, and they didn’t think she would make it if they tried.”
Duchess’s other owner, Roziey Salas, says they immediately contacted the Shelley Police Department and Bingham County Animal Control to report what had happened to the dog.
“According to the cops, they’ve talked to everyone around, and nobody seems to have heard anything,” says Salas. “The officer I talked to said that he needed (to be) pointed in an absolute direction to investigate, and the initial report was never really followed up on.”
EastIdahoNews.com contacted the Shelley Police Department, where an officer confirmed they are actively investigating the case.
“I was pretty concerned given that it’s in close proximity to homes, children, and other dogs in city limits,” says Carnahan.
According to her owners, Duchess has no history of aggression or violence, is consistently around their children with no issues, and has never indicated that she is a danger.
“She is not only my emotional support for PTSD, anxiety, and other diagnoses, but she alerts super well. She’s super smart,” says Carnahan. “I’ve got three children that she plays with, and we have a seven-year-old German Shepherd … they’re both just playful family dogs.”
According to Idaho Code, it is illegal to shoot a dog on your property unless they are “worrying, wounding, or killing any livestock or poultry” or person, on your property.
Carnahan says he is unaware of any injuries or nuisances Duchess has caused that may have resulted in her injuries. The owners say they just want to know what happened, even if she did cause a disturbance.
“It’s our dog, and we feel bad and everything, but someone’s out here just shooting in broad daylight,” says Carnahan. “We just want to know what she was doing that would warrant her getting shot in the first place … whatever the story behind it is, I’d just like closure for my peace of mind.”
Luckily, Duchess’s owners say she seems to be on the mend and learning to live with only three legs.
“She’s a trooper, she really is,” says Salas. “She’s young; she’s able to kind of walk up and down the stairs. Walking down is a little scarier.”
If you have any information about Duchess’s injuries, please contact the Shelley Police Department at (208) 357-3446.
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