Dog Survives Being Shot and Burned in Wyoming

Before I even tell you this story, I'll admit that I'm a dog-lover. Three years ago, I adopted a 12-year old pug and basically gave her a second chance at life. So, reading stories like this really upset me. A blue-heeler in Wyoming survived being both shot and burned after it broke into a chicken coop.

Here's the story. The Wesleys, a family in Casper, Wyoming came home from grabbing dinner to find a dog near their chicken coop. This was especially alarming to the family because 45 of their chickens had been killed by what they had assumed was a dog, between October and December. Wesley Gerber grabbed his gun and went to the coop, where the dog had cornered all of the chickens, ducks, and turkeys.

As Wesley arrived at the coop, the dog jumped the fence and lunged at him and he had no choice but to shoot. He hit the dog in the face and back. When Wesley approached the dog, he spotted his rabies tag, realizing it wasn't a stray dog but a family dog. Wesley ran to the house and spoke to his father, who told him to dispose of the dog the same way they had disposed of the 45 chickens: burn it.

Wesley placed the dog in the burn barrel and doused it with gasoline. He lit a match and the dog went up in flames. But the dog wasn't dead...And it popped out of the barrel and ran around in a circle before taking off towards its home.

When the dog arrived home, he knocked on the door and ran in the house. His owner, Abby Redland, could see the dog bleeding from the face and thought that he was covered in mud. It wasn't until Redland further inspected the dog that she realized the dog wasn't covered in mud at all...he was covered in burns. Redland frantically phoned the vet and got Bo, the dog, in as soon as she could. Bo spent over a week in the vet's office and his medical bills have cost the family nearly $3,000.

No charges have been filed against the neighbors for shooting and burning Bo, though Redland says she may sue for damages related to Bo's medical bills. It turns out that, in the state of Wyoming, you can shoot a dog if it threatens your livestock, which is exactly what Wesley Gerber did.

What do you think? Did the neighbors have the right to shoot Bo? Once they realized it was a family dog, should they have informed the Redlands?