Woman wonders why someone would kill her dog

Hungry Horse News

Sarah was only eight years old when she was killed, when she was shot in the chest.

Like a lot of eight-year-olds, she would spend her days playing in the yard and her afternoons napping.

She was calm and loyal, excitable and sweet.

But Sarah wasn't just any eight-year-old, she was a trained Jack Russell terrier, gunned down on her owner's property and tossed under the front porch.

There was no public outcry, no arrest, just Yates Colby's 15 pound dog, dead.

On July 5, Colby was out of town on business, with two of her prized Jack Russells with her, and the other two left at her home on Martini Lane in Columbia Falls.

At 12:38 that night, the person watching her dogs called unexpectedly.

"He said 'Yates, we have a problem,'" she said. "He found my dog under my front porch, she was shot directly in the chest. It was not a side shot, she was facing whoever shot her."

The dog, holder of an American Kennel Club good citizenship title, had been let out earlier in the day to run through the yard, something Colby's neighbors never had a problem with.

"Most of my neighbors have been there for years," she said. "They have never come to me and said 'I have a problem with your dog.'"

Barbara Palmer, a volunteer with the Flathead Spay and Neuter Task Force, said that these acts of violence actually happen more often than most people think, usually a few times a month.

"It happens so frequently, it's not just an occasional thing," she said. "People aren't really aware that this happens. There's nothing much to be done, because here animals are considered possessions."

Motivations for the killings take all shapes, and Palmer said sometimes there really is no reason for the violence.

"I've heard of cases where people just don't like the barking," she said. "Last year there was a case of a man that had killed a couple of dogs. He just didn't like dogs… We have boxes of kittens each year that people tape up and toss in dumpsters. It's very difficult, it makes these families just broken hearted."

Colby still doesn't understand why someone would harm her dog, harm her companion.

"What kind of person kills a 15 pound dog for no legal or illegal reason other than its presence, and not even an invasive or dangerous presence?" she said. "I have to wonder about the mental state."

After notifying the Flathead County Sheriff's Office, Colby said there isn't much left to do unless someone steps forward with firsthand information.

"I would like to know who did it so that person can be brought to justice," she said. "I'm not about revenge, I'm about education."

Although animal cruelty laws exist in Flathead County, prosecution is difficult unless there is an eyewitness or a confession.