A couple from Thorhild County is warning pet owners to keep a close eye on their pets after their dog went missing and was found dead days later. Several other dogs in the area have also been reported missing.
Chelsey Mykyte and Brian Hanes' two dogs were playing along the tree line of their rural acreage near Bon Accord when their purebred pit bull Wonda went missing.
"After about 15 recalls my male dog returned. My female dog Wonda did not," Mykyte said.
About a dozen people helped the couple search the area for Wonda for two days, but they found no sign of her.
The couple called police and bylaw officers. Then Hanes got a phone call from a neighbour who had been walking his dog on a remote road in the area, when he came across a pool of blood.
"He followed the trail into the trees and he saw Wonda and [saw] that Wonda was shot," Hanes said.
Wonda was found a few kilometres from where she went missing, with what appeared to be a bullet wound in her forehead.
"The police have requested we get an autopsy done, find a vet that will do it, and see if we can extract the bullet for evidence," Mykyte said.
"The person who shot her took her collar. I'm not sure why," Hanes said.
Residents say lost or missing posters are going up more frequently in the area.
At least four dogs including Wonda had been reported missing to bylaw officials.
One of those dogs belonged to Janet Dopson, who lives just across the road from Mykyte and Hanes.
Dopson let her two dogs out while she got ready to take them for a walk on May 19.
That's when Buddy, her purebred Siberian husky, vanished.
"Ginger my chocolate lab came back two hours later but he [Buddy] didn't," Dopson said.
She's been searching for the husky every day since.
"Still no sighting of him at all," Dopson said.
"I've got paraphernalia of Ginger's out to see if maybe it will track him back to her scent but still nothing."
Dopson, Mykyte and Hanes aren't sure why the dogs in the area are being taken but are hoping anyone who may know what happened will come forward.
"You hear so many different things," Dopson said.
"I'm hoping that somebody picked him up and is giving him a good home."
Mykyte is hoping her warning will help prevent other dogs in the area from being taken or harmed.
"I do not want another owner to go through what I went through," Mykyte said, blinking back tears.
"Wonda didn't deserve this. I will never forget her, ever."
"Wonda was our life," Hanes said. "She was our girl."
Mykyte and Hanes have reported Wonda's shooting to RCMP, who were unavailable Sunday to speak to CTV News.
With files from Amanda Anderson
