Left for dead, Bo comes back from the ashes
Caught raiding a chicken coop in rural Wyoming, a blue heeler named Bo was shot twice, tossed in a barrel, doused with gasoline and set on fire.
According to the Washakie County Sheriff’s Office, an 18-year-old neighbor shot the dog — after returning home and finding it was going after the family chickens.
Then, thinking Bo was dead, he asked his father what to do with the dog’s body.
“I said, ‘Burn it,’” the father, Mike Gerber, told the Casper Star-Tribune. ” …We have had other predators come around — and even our chickens that the dog had killed — how we got rid of them was we just burned them.”
His son, Wesley Gerber, dragged the dog to a burn barrel in the front yard, doused the dog with gasoline, and threw in a match.
“The next thing you know, the dog comes popping up out of there in flames,” Mike Gerber told the newspaper. Bo ran around in a circle, and then home.
Ben and Abby Redland, Bo’s owners, said when Bo ran into the house “there was this terrible smell … His hair was melted and fallling out. He was still smoldering.”
Bo was rushed to a vet. Bullets had grazed his cheek and back, and he had third-degree burns over most of his body. “Bo was in such shock, the vet didn’t think he’d make it,” Abby Redland told the Los Angeles Times.
Since the incident — back in December, in rural Worland, Wyoming, 150 miles north of Casper — three-year-old Bo has fully recovered, though he has a few scars.
The Redlands have taken out a restraining order on the Gerbers. And they’re pushing to change Wyoming law and introduce measures that require those who shoot pets to at least contact the animal’s owners.
“I wish it never happened,” Mike Gerber said. “The decisions being made were made fast. Maybe if they would’ve been thought through more clearly, we would’ve done things differently.”
(Photo: By Abby Redland, via Los Angeles Times)
Posted by jwoestendiek February 22nd, 2013 under Muttsblog.
Tags: abby redland, animals, ashes, barrel, ben redland, blue heeler, bo, burned, chickens, dog, dogs, doused, gasoline, mike gerber, neighbor, pets, property, shot, survival, washakie county, wesley gerber. shooting, worland, wyoming
Comments
Comment from TinaT
Time February 27, 2013 at 8:40 pm
Wow. That is just AWFUL!! So glad Bo made it home and has recovered.
Comment from Abby
Time February 22, 2013 at 7:44 pm
As Bo’s owner, I want to say yes, we know we should have kept him at home, however, he usually was always contained at our house. Gerber’s dog was at our house almost daily playing with our dogs, generally always under my supervision. Their dog was never mistreated. We understand they had the right to shoot and kill him if he was harassing livestock, however, burning him? That goes beyond just humanely killing an animal as allowed in the laws. They also did not burn him to prevent other animals from getting to him, they said in the police report that they panicked when they realized Bo was not a stray and burnt him. Bo was properly identified and we literally live 300 yards from each other. Bo barely crossed the fence if he was truly in their chicken pen as our property shares a fence. Its not a case of a dog roaming constantly. Also, Gerber’s have never seen Bo kill or harass any chickens. It is a lie that Bo has killed their chickens. As stated in the police report they claim to have seen him once (not harassing their chickens). This is not a case about shooting a dog, this is a case about burning a living dog. NO animal should ever have to experience this. Even as a person highly involved in agriculture, you don’t burn animals, especially live ones!