Man Killed Neighbor's Dog With Air Gun, Allegedly For Barking Excessively

A North Carolina man was charged Wednesday with fatally shooting his neighbor’s dog allegedly over excessive barking.

According to a press release from the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office, officials responded to a residence Friday after receiving information that a dog had died at a veterinary office from “metal projectiles in his body.”

The dog’s owner, Leigh West, told the officials that she came home the previous night and saw her pet dog, a three-year-old male boxer mix named Gibson, bleeding profusely. West and her stepson rushed the dog to the hospital thinking that it had cut himself on the backyard fence.

“We rushed him to the hospital, they tried to save his life, and finally they couldn’t do anything else. I put my head on him and I said, ‘I am sorry this happened to you,’ and then he was euthanized,” West said.

The dog’s necropsy revealed he had four BBs inside him, two of which were there for months.

The following day, investigators noticed West’s backyard fence was broken. They then went to the home next door to interview 24-year-old Alex Christian Hollinger, who confessed to shooting the dog with an air gun. He was immediately taken into custody and held at the New Hanover County jail on $25,000 bond.

Speaking to Star News Online, West said her family was heartbroken by the dog’s death. She recalled arriving home Thursday evening and finding her pet covered in a pool of blood.

“I yelled for my stepson who was home at the time to grab a towel. I applied pressure, scooped him into my arms and ran out the door,” West said.

West rushed the dog to the hospital where it received a blood transfusion. However, the life-saving efforts failed and it was euthanized Friday morning. She added that Hollinger and his pregnant girlfriend had shifted next door during Christmas 2018 and that she interacted with them for the first time on New Year’s Eve.

“They came over with homemade cookies and a little note introducing himself. I thought they were just the nicest people,” she said.

West said Hollinger had complained to her about the dog’s excessive barking after which she bought him a bark collar.

“That was our last interaction with Alex,” West said.

“We are going to fight for justice. He was our child, our love. We loved him more than anything, and because of someone’s cruel act, he is gone," West said, NBC-affiliated television station WECT reported.

Hollinger, on Wednesday, was charged with five counts of felony cruelty to animals and asked to surrender his firearms and not to be in contact with West’s family. He was scheduled to appear in court April 18.