Kentucky family seeks justice after their dog was allegedly shot, killed by neighbor

By Rachel Hirschheimer

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    BRACKEN COUNTY, Kentucky (WLWT) — A Bracken County family is seeking justice after their dog was allegedly shot and killed by a neighbor.

Now, they’re searching for answers and wondering how something like this could happen.

“It’s been really rough. I feel like I lost a family member,” Taylor Dunn said. “You never realize you miss him until they’re gone.”

That beloved family member is the Mills-Dunn’s dog, Z.

“He wasn’t killed. He was murdered. He was doing nothing wrong,” dog owner, Stephanie Mills-Dunn said.

Mills-Dunn says she was looking out her kitchen window on Labor Day when Z was on a line. She heard it snap, jumped into action and called her son.

“He jumped in the car with me and we drove up the road to my friend’s house, because he liked to play with their dogs and they weren’t outside so I knew he wasn’t there. So we came back by our house and he wasn’t in the driveway and we went back up one more time and I saw him dead in the driveway,” Mills-Dunn said.

She says she discovered her dog shot and killed in a driveway on Old Oakland Road.

According to a police report, the husky ran onto a neighbor’s property. The resident claims they shot Z with a rifle to keep it from damaging or killing animals there, but Mills-Dunn says Z was anything but vicious.

“He had this bright orange collar on and 20 feet of cable still attached to him. So it should have been obvious he was a family pet and he wasn’t some rabid dog on the loose,” Mills-Dunn said.

The person accused of shooting the dog also stated in the police report the dog killed 10 chickens about three weeks before, but Z’s owners deny those claims.

“That dog might lick your face off, but he would never hurt you,” Mills-Dunn said. “As far as livestock goes, like I said, we have kittens. He would never harm anything and I would love to see proof that he did. I mean, I’ve only seen it in the paper with a claim.”

Now, instead of celebrating Z’s second birthday next month, this family is mourning his loss.

“No more car rides, no more snuggles, no more waking up and seeing him in the morning. He’s gone,” Dunn said.

So far, there are no charges filed against the person accused of killing the dog in the police report. WLWT reached out to them, but have not heard back.

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