LUCKY DOG! Sandy, a 4-year-old golden retriever, survived being
mistaken for a deer and shot by an overeager bow hunter this week.
By: Jim Ashley
Source: The Herald-News
10-16-2005
Dayton veterinarian Marshall Taylor has operated on more injured
animals than he can remember, but the one he tended to last Saturday
was one he will never forget.
A beautiful female golden retriever that weighed about 60 pounds
was brought to his office with an arrow wound completely through its
body.
The arrow, said Taylor, entered the dog’s right side, went under
the spine and completely exited the body about the middle of its chest
on the left side. The shooter, he noted, “hit her where it should have
killed her.”
That the dog is still alive is a miracle the doctor said, adding,
“Why she didn’t die, I don’t know.”
The 4-year-old dog, owned by Jeri Walker of Oak Hill, is “colored
like a deer” and named Sandy. The dog, he said, was shot in the Oak
Hill area and was probably mistaken for a deer because of its color.
Sandy, he noted, has an injured diaphragm and liver but is doing
well and is expected to completely recover.
Taylor said he had seen many dogs injured by both arrows and
bullets over the years and that he is concerned that hunters are “not
properly identifying targets before they shoot.”
Unfortunately, he continued, some hunters stand for a long time
without seeing anything to shoot, get bored and then “shoot anything
that comes along.”
The person who shot Sandy is unknown, and there is probably “not
much you can do” in this case, Taylor said, adding, “I hope they show
more concern in the future.”
Jim Ashley can be reached at
jimashley@xtn.net.
