Kamloops shocked by dog slaying
By Cassidy Olivier - Kamloops This Week - December 14, 2007 | | | |
Lauren (left) and Stevie Mayer are left with only photos of their puppy after someone walked into their Westmount yard Monday and killed their pet. The slaying has rattled the family, with the Mounties and the SPCA investigating the disturbing crime.
Lauren Mayer knew something was suspicious when her eight-month-old dog, Bruno, didn’t greet her at the back gate when she returned home from school late Monday afternoon.
But nothing could have prepared the 16-year-old for the grisly scene she stumbled upon when she passed through the gate and followed the trail of fresh blood to the dog house beside the home’s back steps.
Looking inside, the teenager saw her beloved dog, a Catahoula Leopard, lying motionlessly in a pool of blood with its throat slit, the victim of what her dad, Don Mayer, has described as an act of murder.
“I looked in his dog house and he was just laying there,” said Lauren. “I pretty much knew he was dead because he wasn’t moving.”
Following a tearful call to her mother, then her father, the RCMP was called. Officers arrived a short while later to begin the preliminary stages of what has amounted to a full-on criminal investigation also involving the SPCA.
For safety concerns, the family was asked to stay elsewhere for the night, with police continuing to collect evidence from the scene the following day.
But while the RCMP and SPCA have confirmed they are looking into the matter, neither could provide details, citing the ongoing investigation.
As of Wednesday, no arrests or charges had been laid.
“The SPCA is working with the RCMP at this time,” is all Kent Kokoska, a special provincial constable with the SPCA, could offer when asked about the incident.
However, more troubling to the Mayers is their suspicion the suspect remains in the neighbourhood and that the incident may be tied to other animal cruelty acts that have recently plagued the area.
Don confirmed an area resident has come forward to apologize for the incident, blaming a momentary lack of control.
Even more disturbing is some evidence suggesting Lauren narrowly avoided running into the killer.
Fresh footprints in the snow indicate the suspect went first to the front door before going around back. And when Lauren first touched Bruno, the dog’s body was still relatively warm.
Such a prospect is unsettling for her father, who questions what would have happened if Lauren had witnessed the dog killing.
Moreover, now that both his daughters remain too frightened to stay in the house, he questions how long they will remain in the area, a place they’ve called home for the past 11 years.
Such a breach of privacy, he said, is disturbing.
“What is this that this [person] can come over and enter our privacy?” Don asked. “[It proves] stability is just a perception when, unknowingly, a psychopath is in your neighbourhood.”
Stevie Mayer, Lauren’s older sister, is equally shaken.
“This could have been someone’s kid,” she said. “Or what about if my sister had walked in?”
Meanwhile, as her father shovelled away the remaining patches of stained snow Wednesday afternoon, Lauren took time to remember Bruno as a lovable member of the family who left an impression on everyone he met.
His dog house has since been removed.
“He was always a really good social dog,” she said. “Everybody that met him just loved him.”
Story from another paper: Wasn't sure I could copy and paste it here.