Dog Shot In Eye
By: Aaron Cheslock
Updated: July 11, 2012
People are still talking about the incident in Nanty Glo, when a yellow Labrador named "Butter" got away from the front yard of his owner's house. He was then shot by a neighbor in early June with a BB gun. Barbara Hite-Irons, who's fostering Butter in her South Fork home, says the BB remains in his right eye.
"...his sight is definitely diminished, he's not totally blind, and I don't know if he's ever going to get back to full capacity."
It happened late one night off of Cardiff Road in Nanty Glo. Butter, who's an outdoor dog, got loose, and was running, around the next door neighbor's front yard. When the neighbor came outside, he says the dog growled at him, so he shot Butter with a bb gun. Hite-Irons, like many in the area, think it's too much.
"That's a drastic measure. I have dogs that enter my yard or are lost, and the first thing I do is I check their tags. I know my neighbors dog gets loose quite often, I just put a leash on her and take her back."
Judy Noreika, who knows both the owners and the alleged shooter, says she can't quite grasp why the incident happened the way it did.
"I understand that he kept getting loose from the master, and he was running a good bit that day, and why they didn't call the police, I don't
know ..."
Noreika found butter in the woods between the two trailer homes. It didn't take her long to figure out what went wrong.
"...I went on up, and I found a gentleman, and I said to him, I heard there was a dog shot, he said yeah, it's down in the woods."
Noreika took Butter to a local animal hospital where veterinarians used membrane from his eye to stitch him up, he's now up and running again, being held at Hite-Irons home in South Fork. She says it was an impulsive decision to take him in.
"I never fostered a dog before, but my heart went out to him..."
As for the neighbors, who are said to be mutual friends, no charges were filed between them. Noreika says they settled it themselves.
"The gentleman didn't want to arrest the man, because he knew the man, they're friends. So whatever they worked out between them I guess they worked out between them."
A rescue organization out of Strongstown says they are planning to file charges, and have hired an attorney. If you would like more information on adopting Butter, you can call Barbara Hite-Irons directly at 814-495-9768.
