Pets

Hunt is on to find owner and whoever shot German shepherd near Raleigh

A German shepherd was found shot Sunday morning on the side of a road east of Raleigh, and authorities are now trying to determine who shot the dog while also searching for its owner.

Posted Updated

By
Amanda Lamb
, WRAL reporter
RALEIGH, N.C. — A German shepherd was found shot Sunday morning on the side of a road east of Raleigh, and authorities are now trying to determine who shot the dog while also searching for its owner.

Three people who were driving by stopped to help the dog near the intersection of Poole and Hodge roads. The 80-pound animal was bleeding profusely from its neck and ear, Jon Holloway said.

"I don’t know how the shot in the neck didn’t kill him. It was right in his neck," said Holloway's girlfriend, Jen Seeley.

Krystal Grady also stopped to help, and the dog jumped into the backseat of her car. Holloway wrapped the dog in blankets and towels and tried to comfort it as the Good Samaritans called 911 and waited for Wake County Animal Control officers.

"I kind of sat back there, talked to him a little bit, petted him, kind of observing where he was bleeding from," Holloway said. "[It was] very docile for an animal I believed to be in some pretty severe pain."

"Jon sat there with him the whole time," Seeley said. "Every time he wanted more water, he put his paw in Jon’s hand."

The German shepherd was seen earlier Sunday wandering around a nearby gas station and a Family Dollar, where staffers had to shoo it outside, Seeley said. Some time after that, the dog was wounded.

"It’s just sad. I don’t know why anybody would want to hurt an animal," said Seeley, who is a technician at a local veterinary clinic. "If they were coming after you, trying to attack you, I could understand that, but this dog was not this way with us. We chased him off the side of the road, got him in a strange car, and he never once tried to come after us."

"He was friendly to me. I just couldn't imagine shooting an animal just because he shows up in your yard," agreed Holloway.

Dr. Sandra Strong, chief veterinarian for Wake County Animal Services, said the dog, which she estimated is 4 years old, is at an emergency clinic undergoing treatment and remains in the protective custody of the county while officials try to find its owner.

Strong said she believes the dog is a lost pet because it was well cared for, has a collar without an ID and had an electric fence collar.

"We are hoping that an owner will come forward," she said. "We feel certain he is owned by somebody. Hopefully, we can get an owner in contact, and we can put this guy back with who owns him. That would be the best thing for him."

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