NB RCMP investigating after two prized show dogs shot dead

RCMP are investigating after a New Brunswick woman’s two prized show dogs were allegedly shot and killed by a neighbour.

Dog breeder and trainer Cindy Mallery moved to Woodside, Near Port Elgin just a few weeks ago.

She says when her Belgian shepherds ran off into the woods last week she never imagined they would never make it home alive.

A week ago Sunday, Mallery says she let three of her seven dogs outside on her 50-acre property.

She says they spotted a squirrel and darted off into the woods, but didn’t return home.

After searching for the dogs two days, she found one, named Rocky, not far from her property.

“Then you are thinking ‘okay good we got one, so the other two can’t be far off,'” Mallery said Monday. “We were thinking they have to be close by, somebody has to have seen the other ones.”

But on Thursday she says she got the heartbreaking news from a neighbour who called her to say “I think I shot your dogs.”

Mallery says her neighbour told her he’d thought her dogs were coyotes and had shot the two of them dead. He returned their bodies to her that night.

One of the dogs, named Chuba, was a $3,000 show dog she had flown in from the Czech Republic.

“He was going to be our upcoming competition dog and you know, stud dog cause he represented the good blood lines out in Europe,” Mallery said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "He was going to be our upcoming competition dog and you know, stud dog cause he represented the good blood lines out in Europe," Mallery said.

Global news contacted the man who Mallery claims shot her dogs however would not offer a comment or confirm whether he was the neighbour who shot the dogs.

Const. Julie Rogers Marsh with the New Brunswick RCMP says they are investigating the matter.

According to the Department of Public Safety, unless property is being damaged, a person needs a permit to shoot coyotes. It’s unknown whether Mallery’s neighbour had a permit.

Mallery says she takes full responsibility for the dogs getting loose, acknowledging she does have a fence for the dogs, but having recently moved to the area, she hadn’t put it up yet.

However, she maintains she has a hard time believing that anyone could mistake a Belgian shepherd for a coyote.

“To me it is so hard to see how somebody could have made that mistake,” Mallery said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "To me it is so hard to see how somebody could have made that mistake," Mallery said.