Dog shot Berwick, ME (US) Incident Date: Wednesday, Nov 3, 2004 County: York Local Map: available Disposition: Open Suspect(s) Unknown - We need your help!

Case ID: 3436 Classification: Shooting Animal: dog (non pit-bull) View more cases in ME (US) Animal was offleash or loose Login to Watch this Case

Christina Richardson woke up last week to find a man aiming his rifle at her dog, Baby Girl, behind her Hubbard Road home.

The 21-year-old screamed and told the hunter dressed in an orange vest and camouflage to get away from her dog. The hunter bolted into the woods and hasn�t been seen since.

What followed was an agonizing day for the Richardson family. They soon discovered that Christina�s husband�s dog, Spike, was missing. Later they learned Spike, a mixed breed, had been killed.

On Nov. 3, about 6:15 a.m., just a few minutes before Christina�s encounter with the hunter, her father-in-law, Ed Richardson, woke to the sound of a gunshot, which sounded dangerously close to the family�s home.

"Christina went out and started hollering," said Ed Richardson, remembering that fateful morning.

The Richardson�s house sits 800 feet back into the woods along Hubbard Road and has been the family�s home for the past eight years. The hunter Christina saw that morning taking aim was standing less than 25 feet away from the family�s double-wide trailer home.

The family searched for the dog for most of the day, eventually finding his body partially buried beneath a pile of brush some distance away from the home.

"They found him and came in yelling �Spikey�s dead! Spikey�s dead,�" Ed Richardson said.

On Tuesday, Ed and his son David described a dog that loved to run, play and dig in the dirt beside the family�s home.

Spike, who was named for an unruly tuft of hair along his back, was a only about a year old and really was still just a "big puppy," David Richardson said, the dog�s owner and Christina�s husband.

"If you let him, he would jump right up into your lap," David Richardson said.

The family called Berwick Police at 4 p.m. that afternoon to report their discovery.

Officer Chad Allen responded to 393 Hubbard Road to speak with the family and see about the dog. Ed and David took the Berwick officer to where they found the body, about 100 yards off into the woods behind the house.

"It was determined that the dog had sustained a single injury, believed to be inflicted by a gun shot. In addition, it was apparent the dog had been moved to this location, possibly in an attempt to conceal it," according to a police press release.

Ed Richardson said both he and the officer noticed a blood trail leading to the hiding place, which appeared to show the dog was carried to the spot.

The dog�s wound seemed to have been more cut up than was usual for a bullet wound, as though someone tried to dig the bullet out, Richardson said.

"I lost it when I saw his insides falling out," David said. "It�s unexplainable feelings."

"The only words he said � �how could anybody do this,�" Ed said about David�s reaction.

Ed said he has always lived his life expecting people to treat him as he would like to be treated, but then something like this happens and it "tears down your whole hope for mankind."

"He should pay, because it was not right," Ed said. "It just wasn�t right."

In the past, the Richardsons have allowed hunters to use their property, which stretches clear back to the Salmon Falls River and is part of an uninterrupted swath of green along the river�s bank for acres.

Ed Richardson said he now wants to post no hunting signs on at least part of his property to make sure something like this never happens again.

"It�s really pretty frustrating," Ed Richardson said. "I don�t want to restrict the land, because if I post the land nobody (can) hunt on it."

Berwick Police have not received any reports from a hunter stating they have shot the dog. The incident remains under investigation, but authorities do not sound hopeful.

Berwick Police Capt. Jerry Locke said the Maine Warden Service was contacted, due to the fact this is believed to be a hunting incident, although the service refused to investigate further due to lack of evidence.

Anyone with information is encouraged to contact Berwick Police at (207)-698-1136.

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Foster's Online - Nov 11, 2004

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