I stopped by the small town hardware store yesterday to pick up some fresh “NO HUNTING” signs, and the clerk acted put out that I didn’t let trespassers shoot wildlife on my land.
Like so many cunning hunters nowadays, he wanted to come across as some saintly, salt-of-the-earth type who would be doing me a favor by killing my deer friends. How could I possibly object to that?
Well, in addition to the obvious, there’s always the chance that a family member could be hit by a stray bullet, pellet or arrow, as happened that same day to a beautiful husky mix who was just minding his own business:
Husky survives after being shot in the head with an arrow
By Keith Eldridge Published: Sep 15, 2014
RAYMOND, Wash. — The search is on for whoever shot a hunting arrow into the skull of a Husky mix dog. The arrow went in straight through the eye socket and the vet says it’s a miracle Sampson alive.
At first, Sampson’s family and local veterinarians had no clue why his eye was swollen and bleeding. Then the initial X-rays showed the startling revelation: A hunting arrow was inside Sampson’s head. A CAT scan further detailed what was going on.
“Razor sharp blades that went in and embedded in the back of his skull,” said Laura Bowerman, Sampson’s owner.
Bowerman says Sampson and their other dog Delilah always roam free on the 30 acres just east of Raymond along the banks of the Willapa River. When Sampson was two hours overdue Sept. 7, they went looking for him.
They found him collapsed at the end of the driveway.
He was rushed to Willapa Vet Services where vets took X-rays showing the arrow went straight back under his brain, clipping the casing around the brain and just a little bit of his brain.
Sampson needed a neurosurgeon immediately. A vet tech accompanied the dog and the family to Summit Vet Referral in Tacoma where neurologist Dr. Jerry Demuth successfully removed the arrow.
“They had to open up the back of his skull to pull out the arrowhead and the rest of the shaft,” Bowerman said. Bowerman doesn’t suspect her neighbor as they have a longstanding agreement about the dogs. But it is bow hunting season for deer and elk. Even though “no trespassing” signs are posted, the area behind the Bowerman’s is prime for hunting.
But why shoot a non-aggressive dog?
“He doesn’t look like a wolf. He’s bigger than a coyote,” Bowerman said. “Somebody… it’s just mean. It’s got to be meanness. Who would shoot a dog?”
So far the Bowerman family says it has spent $7,000 to keep their beloved dog alive.
Exposing the Big Game 
“It’s got to be meanness. Who would shoot a dog, a deer, a coyote, a fox, a wolf, a bear…..”
Yep, Who would? that’s the question. It doesn’t get much meaner than shooting an arrow shaft into any animal.
I buy a lot of signs. If anyone asked me that question with that attitude, I’d spit in their face.
Hope they find the SOB, POS (choose your own acronym) and make him/her pay all the vet costs and then some…
Fucking ridiculous you should even have to do this.
It amazes me that property owners have to post signs to keep armed killers off their property. Something in the system is broke.
I live in a small village in North-West Italy; the municipality put a no hunting sign on my gate. Thanks, but I don’t like the motivation: because I live in a “repopulation area”, that is animals are brought here to be shot during the next season. So I put my sign: no hunting, no fishing, no nothing. “Why the “NO HUNTING” Signs?” Because murder is legal and we don’t accept it! Poor Husky 😦
“Repopulation” only so the animals can be shot again and again. Only a hunter would thing that makes sense.
If these hunters are capable of shooting an innocent dear, what’s to stop them from shooting a dog. I don’t expect compassion from a murderer. Who would? Jim, I feel sorry that you have live so closely and so guarded due to these psychopaths need for murder.
It almost ruins this time of year.
It does seem that these people are so whacked-out that they are even deliberately killing what they think are wolf hybrids and any dog that looks like or is closely related to wolves. Wasn’t there a report of a hunter practically walking right up to a husky and shooting him in front of his owner? I’ve also read accounts of wolf and coyote haters hating on hybrids – a condition that they are too dumb to understand that they created by wiping out wolves in the 1800s.
Many hunters still subscribe to the myth that unleashed dogs are chasing deer. They just simply shoot them when they see them. Until there are more prosecutions, and proof that the theory really is mythology, I am afraid the shootings will continue.
True, but I doubt that this dog was shot in the eye with an arrow on its own land for that reason.