FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Eric Phelps, 503-754-0977, eric@idausa.org

$2,500 Reward Offered In Dog Cruelty Case

Husky-mix shot through the eye with a hunting arrow

Raymond, Wash. (September 18, 2014) – In Defense of Animals (IDA), an international animal protection organization with a regional office in Portland, Oregon, is offering a $2,500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever brutally shot a dog through the eye with a hunting arrow in Raymond, Washington.

On Sunday, September 7, Sampson, failed to return home after a walk on his family’s 30-acre property along the Willapa River. Concerned, his family went looking for him and found their beloved companion collapsed at the end of their driveway. It wasn’t immediately clear what had happened to Sampson, because the arrow’s shaft had broken off, so his family rushed him to the vet where a CAT scan showed the devastating extent of his injuries – an arrow pierced his eye, traveled through to the back of his head, just missing his brain. Sampson was then rushed to a second vet, a veterinary neurologist, to have the arrowhead and shaft removed.

Laura Bowerman, Sampson’s guardian, told local news, “He doesn’t look like a wolf. He’s bigger than a coyote…it’s just mean. It’s got to be meanness. Who would shoot a dog?”

“Laura’s question is justified in general for the cruel, so-called ‘sport’ of bow hunting,” said Anja Heister, IDA’s director of the Wild and Free-Habitats Campaign. “What sort of person enjoys shooting arrows into an animal’s body, particularly in light of the fact that a majority of these animals are only wounded and then run off to suffer tremendously and die?”

“The cold-bloodedness of this horrific crime indicates what a danger this person is to all of us,” said Eric Phelps, Emergency Response Unit Coordinator for IDA. “Someone knows who did this, and he or she will be serving the entire community by stepping forward.” Phelps added that studies have repeatedly shown, and the FBI and other law enforcement agencies agree, that a person who commits cruelty to animals very often moves on to commit acts of violence against people, especially when the cruelty to animals goes unpunished.

IDA urges anyone with information about this brutal attack to contact them at 415-448-0078.

To contribute to IDA’s Animal Cruelty Reward Fund, please call IDA at (415) 448-0048, ext. 218.

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