A one-year-old Labrador named Lottie is lucky to be alive after being shot three times at Longford on Tuesday.
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Staff at Longford and Northern Midlands Veterinary Services spent about six hours operating on the family dog, after she was shot in the chest, leg and back.
Lottie’s owner Anthea Chugg took to social media to warn neighbours about the incident, after her daughter discovered the pet bleeding at their front door.
“She was shot at least three times and is incredibly lucky to still be alive. There is a couple of really scary factors here,” she said.
“Firstly being that we live in a fairly built up area with three kids often playing outside. How many bullets did this person shoot off?
“That is a question that is constantly playing on my mind.”
Dr Sam Morgan said the family were very distressed when they brought Lottie into the practice about 6pm.
“We rushed out and by this point she had collapsed on the back seat of their car.
“There was a lot of blood.
“We had to get her stable on fluids and antibiotics before we could do an X-ray.
“That’s when we realised she had been shot.”
Dr Morgan said Lottie had a bullet lodged under her rib, very close to her spine.
After almost six hours, the vet decided to leave two of the bullets inside her.
“We couldn’t get to it without causing more damage, so we ended up having to leave two bullets in,” he said.
“We didn’t finish working on her until close to midnight. It’s pretty amazing that she has survived. For the bullets to miss her vital organs and spine is quite remarkable.”
Mrs Chugg described Lottie as the “most friendly dog anyone could ever meet” and said she couldn’t understand why someone would shoot her.
“If someone called her she would come running with her tail wagging,” she said.
“She’s clearly a family dog who is extremely overweight. She is no threat to anything or anyone.”
Dr Morgan said while it was not uncommon for dogs to get shot, he had never seen a case at Longford.
“People have every reason to be concerned. Farmers have a legal right to shoot dogs if they are threatening their stock – that is an important law. But Lottie is just a big fat Lab,” he said.
A Tasmania Police spokesman said a report had been received in relation to a dog being shot at Longford.