Gunshot Dog: Report It or Not?
A trusted practitioner just called (literally, within the hour I wrote this). She has seen a dog with a gunshot wound; probably a .22 caliber projectile. Radiographs revealed fragments and some were removed by the doctor and staff with no law enforcement involvement. The dog, other than a soft tissue wound, will recover well.
The client says a neighbor, known as her trailer park’s ne’er-do-well, is who she thinks shot her dog. She did not witness the shooting but says everyone in the park is afraid of this guy and some say they saw him shoot the dog but won’t talk to law enforcement.
The client lives in a state where there is no equivocation in law about shooting other’s animals—you just can’t do it and you can’t discharge a firearm in an area like a mobile home community.
The practitioner wanted to know if she should report the matter to law enforcement. Of course I asked a few more questions next.
“Has this guy been violent before?"
“Yes, according to the client he’s thumped a few folks in the park and generally been an intimidating force among the residents.”
“Did you ask the client to report it?”
“Yes, but they refused saying they feared what this guy would do next.”
“Could they have shot their own dog intentionally or accidentally and the client be covering for that with the ‘bad neighbor,’ story?”
“Yes… That hadn’t crossed my mind… but now that you ask I have no evidence that that could not have happened.”
At that point I said I think the choice is clear—don’t contact law enforcement. Here’s my reasoning:
They allege they did not see the shooting. They accuse someone else. The projectile fragments were not entered into a chain of custody but are floating around in a veterinarian’s office being shown to family and friends. The vet’s state does not compel or provide immunity for such reporting. The owners are reluctant for whatever reason to take responsibility and report the incident themselves.
Frankly, there are just too many loose ends and a lot of room for at least two sets of unstable people to do worse things as a result (the alleged neighbor or whoever else, maybe a family member, that shot the dog).
How would you handle this? What if you report, the neighbor is real, and comes over pounding on their door? Or yours? What if you report and it was one of the passel of kids that were in tow when the dog was brought in? What if you report and it was the spouse and they retaliate? What if the cops think there is a legitimate bust and the fragments are held inadmissible? What if…?
