LADONIA, TX - A Fannin County man says he wants justice after he says a local police officer shot his dog at close range with a tranquilizer gun.

"Very angry, my dog didn't deserve what she got."

On March 14th Jim Rook says he left his 5 year old boxer, Paddy, home alone for the first time, to go visit his sister in the hospital.
When he returned later that evening he found her on the side of the road just down the street from his house.

When he got to his dog, he thought she had been hit by a car because she was laying in this ditch bleeding, it was then that a Ladonia Police officer told him he had shot the dog with a tranquilizer gun, and would not allow him to take his dog for help.

"At that point he said no put her on the ground, she's going to the pound." Rook said.

Lodonia Chief Kevin Mayberry says his officer was responding to a call about the dog running loose in someone's yard.
The officer had been chasing the dog for about an hour when he decided to fire the tranquilizer gun from about 20 yards away.

"We use the gun as a last resort, after all attempts are lost, if we can't catch it with a catch pole, and can't catch it with a cage." said Chief Mayberry.

But Rook says his vet told him the injury looked more like a shot from close range.

"If he was close enough to do that kind of damage with a tranquilizer gun, then he could have used a catch pole or catch net." said Rook.

And when he was allowed to pick Paddy up from the city pound the next day, he was horrified at her condition.

"She was in a 2 by 2 wire cage and still had her open wound, it hadn't been treated and there was feces in the bottom of the cage." JR 10secs

Thoa Allen owns the Rainbow Bridge animal shelter in Bonham.
She says the conditions were deplorable, so were the dog's injuries.

"I don't know, if that's not abuse, I don't know what is, really." Allen said.

"Everyone I contact says it's not their problem or contact your local police." Rook said.

Rook claims several other area residents have witnessed the officer being cruel to dogs.

"I've heard the rumors, but no one has ever came to the city with that complaint." said Chief Mayberry.

Allen says it's a growing problem in the entire county.

"There's no justice for Mr. Rook, or for any animal in Fannin County, or the citizen in Fannin county."