Service Dog Euthanized After Being Shot In Face For 'No Reason'

A service dog was shot in the face for “no reason,” the canine’s owner said. The incident took place in St. Louis, Missouri, on Friday.

Abigail Barnes said her service dog, a 10-month-old Great Pyrenees named Butter, walked over to the neighbor’s property after escaping the fence. By the time she got the dog, her neighbor had grabbed a gun from inside the home and shot the canine.

“I made it about halfway over there before he ran back out and just shot her in the face,” Barnes said, adding that she watched as the bullet went through her dog’s nose and out her neck. The dog was rushed to a nearby animal hospital where it was euthanized.

“Her face was hanging off the side of her mouth, blood was just everywhere,” Barnes said.

Speaking to News 4, she said her service dog was more than a companion who helped her cope with post-traumatic stress disorder.

“When I was 15 I was beaten and raped, and I was violated, and it messed me up a lot and I have a hard time coping,” she said. An investigation was ongoing.

In a similar incident in Texas earlier this year, a gunman fatally shot a diabetic teenager’s service dog outside her home. The dog’s owner said the 4-year-old golden retriever was found lying motionless outside the home and succumbed to injuries at the animal hospital. The teen’s mother said the dog was trained to detect high or low blood sugar levels. The dog would “poke her with his nose on her leg. He got in front of her, made sure she stopped and listened to him” when the girl’s blood sugar reached dangerous levels.