Published: December 12, 2006 02:14 am      

HUNTING INCIDENT: Man's dog shot, mistaken for coyote

A dog was reportedly killed by hunters in a Pendleton field over the weekend, and the dog’s owner is hoping the man who fired the shot will come forward.

Lockport resident Jeff Burg told sheriff’s deputies that around 4 p.m. Saturday, while he was visiting his father on Tonawanda Creek Road, he took his dog, Riley, for a walk in the back woods on the property.

Riley, an 18-month-old German shorthaired pointer, was not on a leash, but was wearing a bright orange collar, a sheriff’s department report said.

Burg said he was walking through some thick brush on the edge of the property when he fell through a sheet of ice into a shallow hole. Riley continued walking and stopped about 15 feet away as Burg tried to get himself out of the hole.

What happened next will be burned into Burg’s memory for years to come.

“I look up, and I see a guy with an orange hat,” he said. “The next thing I remember is I see the flash of the gun going off, hear the bang, and then the dog goes down.”

Burg ran up to the hunters and asked why they shot his dog, and one of the hunters reportedly said, “I thought it was a coyote.”

Burg said the hunter then backtracked and said he didn’t know where the shot came from.

“I couldn’t continue to argue with him,” Burg said. “At this point, my dog is struggling. The dog doesn’t know what is going on.”

Burg left the hunters and ran to tend to Riley, and the hunters quickly left the scene, the report said.

Sheriff’s Capt. Steven Preisch said a good hunter should know exactly what they’re aiming at before taking a shot.

“One of the most basic rules in hunting safety is knowing you don't point at anything that you don't intend to shoot, but you always make sure you have your target identified prior to pulling the trigger,” he said. “It seems like every year we get someone who shoots a house by accident, or they're not looking at what's behind the target. It's always a tragedy.”

The state’s Department of Environmental Conservation regulations require all hunters who have never had a hunting license before to pass a hunter education course in order to get a license.

Knowing what you’re shooting at is, “one of the simple and basic rules of hunting,” Preisch said. “You can compare it to driving, to learning to stop at a stop sign or at a red light.”

Burg said looking back on the incident, he wishes he had gotten more information from the hunters, but his first concern was with Riley.

“I was quite emotional at the time,” he said. “The whole situation was screwed up. I wish I would have taken more time ... I would have been able to get a little more closure more quickly. But I wasn’t going to sit there and argue with them because I had to take care of my dog.”

Burg carried the 70-pound dog back to his father’s house and drove him to a nearby veterinarian’s office, where it became clear that Riley could not be saved.

Burg called his wife, Lisa, who came to the vet’s office in time to say good-bye to Riley before he was put down.

The couple, who got Riley as a puppy shortly after their wedding, is reeling from the loss.

“This dog was everything to me and my wife,” Burg said. “This dog (didn’t have) a bitter bone in his body. He comes to work with me every day. It’s a huge loss. It’s difficult to deal with.”

The German Shorthaired Pointer Society of America said the dogs are bred to be good gun hunters, with a very short coat and a docked tail. Burg said Riley looked nothing like a coyote.

“(Coyotes are) shorter, they’re fluffier, they look nothing like my dog,” he said. “There’s no way this guy didn’t know this was a dog.”

Preisch, a dog owner, said he sympathizes with Burg’s loss.

“You gotta be a pet owner to understand the person's loss,” he said. “(The dog) becomes part of your family. It's that unconditional love a pet gives you, year after year after year, and when it comes time to put them to sleep or you lose them, it's tough.”

Coyote season began Oct. 1 and runs through March 25, according to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Hunting and Trapping Regulations Guide.

The suspected shooter is described as a white male, in his late 20s or early 30s, carrying a large gun with a scope on it. The other hunter is described as a white male, in his late 30s or early 40s, with a light brown or red mustache.

Both suspects were wearing camouflage and orange hats.

Burg said he went back to the scene on Monday to try and piece together what happened, and he estimates the hunters were no more than 50 feet away from Riley when the shot was fired.

Burg said he thinks the hunters didn’t realize he was there and were just going to shoot the dog and leave it there. He said he found a dead deer in the same area that he believes was shot by the same men, who then left it there without tagging it.

A hunter himself, Burg said he is disgusted by the actions of the two men.

“That man was not man enough, after he did what he did, to even help me carry my dog out,” he said.

He hopes someone will come forward with information about the shooter. Even though it won’t bring Riley back, he said, the family needs closure.

“It would mean the world to me and my wife to be able to confront this guy,” he said. “He’s a grown man. You got to ‘fess up to things.”

Contact April Amadon at 439-9222, Ext. 6251.