LINCOLN COUNTY, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Avery Haney and Morgan Dean have decided to cremate the remains of their 8-month-old labradoodle, who had to be put down late Easter Sunday. The puppy’s spine was severed by buck shot which peppered his body just a few hours earlier.
Ruger was shot by the couple’s neighbor, Brenda Howard, who claimed that he was among a group of animals who had killed several of her chickens over the past week.
“He had never killed anything in his life,” Dean explained to Queen City News just days after Ruger was killed.
The Lincoln County couple explained that on Sunday morning they had let Ruger and their other dogs out to run around in their front yard.
It was a nice day,” Haney explained.
Ruger had been dressed in an Easter bandana and had posed for photos before the couple let him out of their sight for a split second.
Haney said he began to call for Ruger when he started to walk toward his neighbor’s property line. That’s when he heard the sound of a shotgun going off.
“It was the loudest shot I’ve ever heard,” Dean explained.
Haney claims he found Ruger still alive but unable to move in the middle of his neighbor’s backyard and nowhere near Howard’s chicken pen.
