"Contender, I have to ask.....That dog must have done something bad to you or some one else for you to shoot it ??'
I've shared the story a few times in the past.
My mother had a store here in Lake Lure. I used to live in a trailer behind it. Dogs would get into the trash, crap on the property etc. We dealt with that. But,, my mom's beloved dog,, a white German Shepard caught Parvo & almost died. Mom spent a bunch of money saving her.
She than called animal control about the dogs that roamed the area. No action for days. She called again,, and again,, no action for several days. She called a 3rd time,, and again,, no action for several days. In fact,, in court it was proven that she'd called over an 8 week period w/o any animal control response.
Finally out of frustration,, she told me to "Burn their butts" anytime I caught one on the property.
I normally kept a Ruger Security-Six .357 handy. I loaded it with custom handloads,, where there are (3) pieces of #1 buckshot in Speer shot capsules as my 1st (2) rounds. I kept (2) rounds of inverted HBWC's as my next (2) rounds. Lastly,, I kept (2) rounds of 158 grn JHP's in it.
Over the next few weeks I managed to buckshot 6 dogs. The load was mild enough,, that no serious injuries occurred. Most often,, between the distances & the mild load,, it'd burn their backsides a bit.
Well, I had fired a round of buckshot at a dog,, and didn't immediately reload the gun & replace the buckshot. The next day,, I had a dog (again) on the property,, and I fired a buckshot load,, which put it in gear. It was about 35-40 yds away,, and I fired a second round. Uh-oh. Inverted HBWC. The dog rolled & yelped pretty good. It ran to it's owners house. (BTW; the owner had previously told my mother & I that he didn't believe in keeping his dogs put up. And if was gonna shoot one,, just kill it.)
He called the police. The Chief came by. As we were talking, another of that guy's dog came onto the property. The Chief quietly told me to use the "3-S" rule. (The Chief has been dead for many years now.)
I was charged with "animal cruelty."
My mother paid for the lawyer.
The County admitted to NOT responding to her complaints.
The Chief testified he saw their dog on our property.
My mother testified about her problems AND that she'd told me to shoot the dogs. In fact,, she broke up the court as she was explaining about the "Dogs who come onto my property,, and they sh,, eerr deficate on my property." her almost saying the 4 letter word made even the judge laugh.
Then my lawyer cited NC laws.
Health hazards with feces, including Parvo.
Owners being held liable for damages to other property owners if their dog trespasses upon that property.
And he stated that by all accounts,, the owners refused to keep their dogs on their property,, and the County failed to do their job.
Case dismissed.
Did I intend to use an inverted HBWC on that dog? No. Did I follow my mother's instructions? Yes. Did the dog's owners take care of their dogs as they should have? No.
Afterwards,, the County caught 4 dogs on our property,, and the ones they could identify,, the owners got fined.
All this happened in 1981.
