A 7-month-old dog who was shot six times is recovering despite having four bullets still lodged in his body, his rescuer says.
Sabrina McClain, of Worland, Wyoming, told Cowboy State Daily on Monday that the kelpie- and border-collie mix, Axel, has been relinquished to her care after his owner shot him last month.
Though his front leg was shot, veterinarian professionals believe he’ll get to keep it.
He’s dealing with nerve damage in that leg and a hind leg where a bullet is still lodged in the haunch; and he has two bullets still in his shoulder and another lodged in his chest, said McClain.
She said Axel’s front paw knuckles under sometimes from the bullets stuck in his shoulder. He gets irritated with it but keeps working and has been using all four legs.
He’s had a plate and two screws placed in his shattered jaw, and won’t get to eat crunchy food or play with a chew toy until sometime in March, said McClain.
“So the goal right now is making sure he’s healthy and his jaw is healing up,” said McClain, adding that she took Axel in after he was shot because she’s a known animal rescuer and wanted to help.
The dog is afraid of loud noises, and “for whatever reason, he was terrified of the broom,” said McClain. “He’s going to need some work. He’s getting a later start with the training aspect of things – but he’s (now) spoiled rotten.”
Meanwhile In Court
Donald “Dudley” Wayne Wright, who turns 60 this year, was charged last week with cruelty to animals, using a gun to commit a felony, property destruction, two counts of breach of peace and three counts of stalking in connection with Axel’s shooting.
He could face up to 16.5 years in prison if convicted on all counts.
An evidentiary affidavit by Washakie County Sheriff’s Deputy Jeffrey Neal lists the case allegations.
The Washakie County Sheriff’s Office received a call of a disturbance Jan. 14, from a home on Highway 20 North near Worland, involving Wright, says the document.
McClain called in the disturbance, since she’d been on the phone with a female friend who was allegedly being terrorized by Wright that morning.
She told authorities that Wright was outside armed with a gun, being hostile to three women who were at the home next door.
Wright and his ex-girlfriend are listed as co-owners of the home in which Wright lives, and of the home right next to it in which his ex-girlfriend lives.
McClain told sheriff’s personnel that Wright had shot a dog the day before while drunk, and that the dog was being treated at Flying A Animal Health in Ten Sleep.
But Wright didn’t know the dog was at the vet’s office, and he was outside the home next door searching for it, armed with a handgun and yelling at two of the women in the house next door, McClain reported at the time.
Putting It Down
Neal, Washakie County Sheriff Austin Brookwell, and Wyoming Highway Patrol agents arrived on scene.
Wright emerged from his home and sat on his front porch as Brookwell spoke with the people staying at the home, the document says.
At first Wright wouldn’t speak to Neal except from 30 feet away, the deputy wrote. He identified himself by name and as the homeowner.
Wright said he owned a dog that he’d chosen to put down. It was a border collie/kelpie mix and had killed his chickens, he said.
The dog tore up the inside of Wright’s home and destroyed his medication the night of Jan. 13, Wright told law enforcement personnel, according to the affidavit.
At about 9 p.m. on Jan. 13 he’d had enough and decided to shoot the dog with a 9 mm handgun in his own backyard to put it down, he said.
Though he hit the dog, it ran and hid under the porch; so he walked to his ex-girlfriend’s home and shot through the porch floor at the dog “multiple times,” the affidavit says.
Wright lost sight of the dog and went back home, Neal related.
In her own interview, McClain said she believed Wright went back into his home to reload his gun, and he passed out.
‘Hope He Bleeds Out’
The morning of Jan. 14, Wright went back to his ex-girlfriend’s home to put the dog “out of its misery,” the affidavit says. He texted the women who live at that home and yelled at them, demanding the dog, Neal wrote.
“He’s gone. He ate all my heart meds, and I hope he bleeds out,” Wright reportedly texted his ex-girlfriend.
One of the women later told a friend that Wright was outside armed and acting hostile.
What he didn’t know is that his ex-girlfriend’s stepdaughter had found the dog under the porch in the middle of the night prior and had taken it to the vet, says the document.
Wright later told Neal that though he was walking around his ex-girlfriend’s home with a gun, he didn’t point the gun at the women who live there; he just wanted the dog back so he could finish putting it down: “(to) put it out of its misery, to put it out of my misery.”
Options
Neal wrote that Wright had other options, and could have given Axel to his ex-stepdaughter, who considers him “partly her dog;” or could have taken him to a vet to have him “humanely euthanized.”
The affidavit says Wright has shot other dogs and terrorized the two women in other ways starting in at least 2017.
Holly Getzfried, of Worland-based rescue service Wyoming Pit Bull Post, told Cowboy State Daily she recognizes that putting one’s own dog down is a part of Wyoming culture and not generally illegal.
But, said Getzfried, “It’s done with a lot more couth. It’s a one-shot kill, you know what I mean? It’s not six shots in a drunken stupor.”
She added that she doesn’t condone home euthanizing, however.
Though Getzfried has not taken over Axel’s care, she has been helping share his story via her non-profit group’s Facebook page.
As for McClain, she said Axel’s initial veterinarian bill was nearly $1,500. An anonymous donor paid $500 of that directly to the vet. Axel has had follow-up and other vet visits since then, including a trip to get neutered to alleviate the swelling from the bullet in his haunch, said McClain.
The Tally
Washakie County Attorney Tony Barton filed the seven counts against Wright on Feb. 19.
Barton told a Worland Circuit Court Magistrate Judge Marcy Argeris on Monday that the state has multiple witnesses to corroborate the evidence, and multiple statements Wright made on social media.
The prosecutor asked for the judge to hold Wright on a $5,000 cash bond, "given the violent nature of the crime, the alleged offense of intimidation of the various people attempting to interfere (with his acts)."
The judge determined Wright poses a danger to the community and set a $5,000 cash bond, adding that if he gets out of jail he's to obey the law, not have any guns, drugs, alcohol or animals. He must avoid the women he's accused of terrorizing; and he'll have to report to the sheriff's office every morning.
Argeris set his preliminary hearing for March 6.
The count of felony cruelty to animals is punishable by up to two years in prison and a fine of $5,000. The second felony charge of using a gun while committing a felony, carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines.
The remaining six charges are all misdemeanors. They are:
Property destruction (punishable by up to six months in jail and $750 in fines)
Two counts of breach of peace (up to six months and $750 each)
Three counts of stalking (up to one year and $750 each).
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
