Lily the beagle, victim of a pellet-gun shooting
A neighborhood dog was shot with a pellet gun, apparently through a slat in the fence. The pup died, even after her owner spent some $2,000 trying to keep her alive.
On the evening of Dec. 23 Myra Canterbury and her daughter — who was home for the holidays from Vanderbilt University — were having a late dinner when they heard one of their dogs, a beagle named Lily, yelp.
From the looks of it, “someone had popped her with a pellet gun,” Canterbury says.
No one knows who shot Lily, and neighbors say the police reportedly are not making the case of animal cruelty a priority
Canterbury’s yard, in the Whispering Hills neighborhood just north of Lake Highlands, is enclosed by a wood fence, but has open slats, covered by chicken wire, allowing the dogs — Lily and an older schnauzer — visibility during their time outdoors.
At first Canterbury believed it was a superficial wound and bandaged Lily up, but by the next morning, the beagle was urinating blood.
“We took her to the emergency vet where we learned the pellet had punctured her intestines.”
Lily’s condition worsened and after a trip to the dogs’ regular vet, everyone decided it best to euthanize the suffering animal.
The veterinary bills totaled $1,700 at the emergency clinic plus another $300 at the office.
“At a time like that, you will pay whatever you can. You just want to save [your pet],” Canterbury says.
After Lily’s death, Canterbury filed a police report, but it wasn’t easy, she says.
“I didn’t do it when it first happened, because I guess there was so much going on, we were pretty distraught, that I didn’t think of it right away.”
When she called the police, she decidedly was not encouraged to file a report, she says.
“The person who took my call told me that if they came out, they would only be investigating me for animal cruelty … I understand that a dead pet is low on the priority list. I do.”
She adds that she is realistic and understands that at this point they won’t catch the person who did this.
“But I still thought it should be recorded, if only to keep track and prevent it from recurring.”
A few days later, Canterbury approached officers patrolling the neighborhood with the story.
“They took the report, gave me a case number and said someone would call me. No one has called me, but they were kind.”
If some at the police department were unsympathetic or less than responsive, Canterbury’s neighbors were the opposite. Neighbor Richard Pruitt, for example, offered $100 reward for specific information about the crime.
Pruitt doesn’t know Canterbury, but he heard about the shooting via the online forum Nextdoor.com and couldn’t get it out of his head.
“I just made the offer for the reward after thinking about it for a couple of days. Sounds like an act from a misguided kid that needs to recognize what he or she did before they get any older,” he says. “I’m a big animal lover. Animals can be like a member of the family.”
Whispering Hills is just north of Lake Highlands, in the northeast division of the Dallas Police Department.
Canterbury was touched by the gesture and added her own money to the pot.
“I am willing to offer as much as $500. Of course it wouldn’t bring Lily back,” she says. “It could, however, possibly prevent anything like this from happening to anyone else.”
Both Canterbury and Pruitt say they guess and hope that the crime likely was perpetrated by some kid who might not have understood the gravity of what he or she was doing.
Nonetheless, the act left an animal-loving neighborhood feeling violated — Pruitt notes that people in the neighborhood always care for strays and have started a pet registry to help reunite loose pets with owners.
“I think our neighborhood is very loving when it comes to animals,” he adds.
And it left a family heartbroken over the senseless loss of a loved pet.
“It is just such a waste. She was a sweet and beautiful dog.”
