A Chalan Pago couple is left mourning their dog after she was shot through the chest with an arrow and killed on Christmas Eve.
Scott and Stacey Anderson left their 11-year-old dog Lia out for her morning walk on Tuesday like any other day.
“The last thing we expected to see early this morning was our dog coming back like she normally would, but with an arrow sticking out of her chest,” Scott Anderson said.
Lia was one of five dogs owned by the Andersons, and “basically like our oldest child,” Scott Anderson said. Already an older female used to living inside, she knew not to run off, he said.
“In the mornings, we just let them out to use the bathroom, do their business. … She usually stays out a few extra minutes, when she's ready to come in, she comes back and knocks on the door,” Scott Anderson said.
He said they live atop of a hill, with another piece of property behind them, and his cousin’s home next door.
“She's an older dog, so she's not one that causes trouble, or definitely not that (we're) aware of,” he said.
Lia would run next door to play with his cousin’s dog and get a treat, but never strayed more than a few minutes from the house, Scott Anderson said.
Neighbors haven’t raised any complaints before, according to the couple.
“We haven’t had any issues with any of our dogs,” said Stacey Anderson, who was the first to find Lia with the arrow lodged in her on Tuesday.
“As soon as we saw it, the first thing we did was jump in the car and try and find a vet that was open,” Scott Anderson said.
They put Lia in their car and rushed her to Wise Owl Animal Hospital in Tamuning.
Despite having the arrow in her, Lia barely expressed signs of pain through the bumpy car ride, Scott Anderson said. “I don’t know if she was just kind of in shock.”
Lia hated going to the vet, but didn’t put any resistance in getting out of the car, or following the vet staff as they took her away to surgery, he said.
But just a few minutes after surgery began, the couple was called back, and vet staff reported that they were performing CPR on Lia.
Pierced 3 organs
The arrow pierced Lia’s lungs, liver, and spleen, according to Wise Owl Veterinarian Dr. Joel Joseph.
During the course of the surgery, it was also discovered that Lia had terminal cancer, and likely had about three months left to live, according to the vet.
Scott Anderson said he and his wife knew that Lia’s time to pass was coming soon.
“But it's really heartbreaking that someone took her from us now before it was actually her time to go,” he said.
Stacey Anderson said they had discovered the arrow in Lia around 8 a.m. on Tuesday morning.
By around 11 a.m., Lia’s body lay lifeless on an observation table at Wise Owl, covered in a cloth, as the couple stood grieving over her.
Scott Anderson said they didn’t have a chance to say goodbye to Lia before she died.
According to Joseph, the small tip on the arrow removed from Lia’s chest would have been used for target practice, not hunting. Lia would have died faster had she been hit with a larger hunting arrow, according to the vet.
The veterinarian said he’s seen dogs shot with an arrow twice before in the states, but never on Guam.
‘Just wrong'
“Who does this on Christmas? It’s just wrong,” the veterinarian said.
Joseph said he reported the incident to the Guam Police Department like any other shooting, and GPD had come by Wise Owl Tuesday.
GPD spokesperson Officer Berlyn Savella did not respond to an inquiry about any GPD investigation on Tuesday afternoon.
The Andersons said they did receive a case number from the police department.
Stacey Anderson said their home security cameras did not catch the moment Lia was shot, but did catch her limping back with the arrow inside of her.
She said she believed that whoever got up to shoot Lia at 8 a.m. the morning must have prepared to do it.
“We've had her for 11 years. She's done this several times a day for the past 11 years. So if someone did do it, they had to have known … that’s it's a dog, a familiar dog. She's in the area,” Stacey Anderson said.
“Whoever did it, woke up one Christmas Eve and chose violence. Cruelty and violence,” she said.
With Wise Owl closed on Christmas Day, Lia’s body won’t be available for pick up until Thursday, according to Scott Anderson.
They’ll have until then to dig a plot to bury her in the backyard.
“They ruined our Christmas,” Stacey Anderson said of the shooter, coming to tears.
“It’s not a child, but it was our child,” she said.
According to Dr. Joseph, a large number of dogs on Guam come in with serious injuries after being shot, usually with high-powered pellet guns.
He said he recently had an incident where a dog shot in the neck with a pellet gun was put into a wheelchair.
Pugua's Law
In 2018, a man was accused of shooting and killing a dog named Pugua in the village of Yigo with a .22 caliber rifle.
Gerald Wayne Cruz II was ultimately cleared of felony charges related to the killing of Pugua, after a trial court found that even if Cruz did kill Pugua, he did not do so in a cruel manner.
The controversial case led to an overhaul of Guam animal cruelty laws, through the 2020 Protecting Animal Welfare and Safety, PAWS, Act, or Pugua’s Law.
Pugua’s Law makes it a third-degree felony to “knowingly, recklessly, or with criminal negligence” to cause the death of an animal, and a second-degree felony do so “under circumstances demonstrating malice aforethought.”
The law also allows a pet's owner the opportunity to file a civil suit in court for relief after their pet is abused.
If a person kills an animal in self-defense, or in defense of another, they are required to notify the Department of Agriculture and remain with the carcass until an animal control officer takes possession of the carcass.
