LOVELAND - The Larimer Humane Society is looking for the person who shot a Bernese Mountain Dog with a .22-caliber bullet at Carter Lake late last week.
The dog, named Carter, belonged to a family in Loveland. They decided to have him euthanized the next day.
Now, a local business is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the person responsible - and the Larimer Humane Society is investigating as well.
"He just loved to be loved, and very close with his family," Sharon Seymour, who had let Carter out to her fenced backyard last Thursday, said.
She says that ever since her son Jason moved out last month, Carter hadn't been the same.
"Since Jason's moved, Carter's been going out, trying to find him," Seymour said.
Last Thursday, she says she drove around the neighborhood looking for Carter to no avail. That night, he came home on his own.
Seymour noticed the dog was tired and wouldn't eat his food. Other than that, she says she couldn't see blood and he wouldn't wince at all when she tested the rest of his body for anything that could have happened.
She told her son Jason to come by.
"As soon as Jason walked through the front door, Carter just got right up and, wagging his tail, and went right up to Jason, and Jason looked at me and said, 'There's nothing wrong with him,'" Seymour said.
By the next morning, the family realized they had been mistaken.
"He showed no signs at all of being in pain," Seymour said crying. "He had a bullet inside of him, and it ripped through his abdomen and his intestines."
The vet told the family surgery would cost $10,000. As a single mother, Seymour knew she couldn't afford it. They had to put Carter down.
"My family's really devastated by this," Seymour said. "We just wanna find whoever did this."
Whoever shot Carter could be charged with a felony. Seymour says Carter was very friendly with other animals and would never chase other larger animals. She can't understand why somebody shot her dog, she says.
A local business, Axis Electronics, is offering a $1,000 reward. Seymour says anybody with information should contact the Larimer Humane Society at 970-226-3647.
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