A Calgary dog owner is trying to understand how someone could shoot her pet. Edward is an eight-year-old black Labrador, who often accompanies his owner when she travels to work on a farm southwest of the city, near Millarville.
“He went missing for a few hours,” Alex Brazev said of the incident that happened last Thursday.
“After searching for about three or four hours, I found him in the brush in the back of the property, laying down and not really able to get up.”
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Brazev says Edward was cold and bleeding from a puncture wound. At first, she said she thought he had been cut by barbed wire but a visit to the vet later revealed Edward’s injuries were much more severe.
“They did an ultrasound and X-ray and found he was bleeding internally quite rapidly and that I could either elect to do a surgery and try and save him or put him down to end his suffering.”
Brazev chose the surgery. She said she was later told by the surgeon that a bullet had damaged her dog’s intestine and spleen.
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“They did an X-ray the next day and found the pellet just under his abdomen,” Brazev said.
“It was pretty devastating. The farm is like a second home to me and it’s my boss’s home. To know that someone nearby the property would be that cruel to an animal was pretty disheartening.”
RCMP are investigating.
Fortunately, Edward is expected to make a full recovery. Friends, family and even strangers are now helping Brazev with Edward’s $5,600 vet bill via a Gofundme page.
It’s kindness, she said, that has proven to be the silver lining following an act of violence that almost cost Edward his life.