Park County residents are engaging in a emotionally-charged discourse after a 200-pound dog was hit and killed on U.S. Highway 14-A.
The furor started when Addison Hebbler made a social media post addressed to “the POS who hit my dad’s 200lb dog on the Powell highway” on Monday afternoon.
She accused the person responsible of leaving the dog “there to die.”
“I hope your car is f***ed,” she said.
Amidst the usual sympathetic responses to Hebbler's post were people condemning the person who hit the dog, a Great Dane/mastiff mix, and the people who owned the dog.
One of the people who responded was the person who hit the dog, Powell resident Pete Pepping. He hasn’t bucked responsibility, but wanted to set the record straight on what he did and didn’t do that day.
And one thing he didn’t do was leave the dog there to die, he said.
“I am really upset that I killed this dog,” he told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday. “It was a beautiful dog. But I didn't leave it to die. I stayed on scene. I called the police, like I was supposed to, and (this post) really pissed me off.”
Cowboy State Daily attempted to reach Hebbler, but had not received a response by the time of publication.
What Happened
Pepping had finished shopping in Cody when he started heading home to Powell that afternoon, he said. As he was traveling eastbound on U.S. 14-A, where the speed limit is 70 mph, he noticed a large dog.
“I had my cruise set at 70, and out of the corner of my eye I saw this giant dog running toward the highway,” he said. “I stepped on the brakes to knock the cruise off, and it just kept running.”
Pepping said he tried everything to avoid hitting the dog. He tried swerving right, but that would have sent him careening into a ditch and might have caused him to hit the dog if it turned around and ran away from the highway.
“If the dog saw me and turned around, I was going to hit it anyway,” he said.
Pushing hard on the brakes but still moving, Pepping swerved left and almost crossed into the opposite lane of traffic to avoid the dog. The dog, meanwhile, was “in a dead run” and kept coming.
“I was screaming at the dog to stop,” he said. “I couldn’t brake hard enough. Everything in my truck was flying forward. The dozen eggs that I had just bought at Walmart were scattered all over the dashboard.”
There was nothing else Pepping could do.
“I saw the dog, I hit the brakes, but there was no avoiding it,” he said, adding that it all happened in the matter of seconds.
Powell resident Pete Pepping says he did everything he could to avoid hitting a 200-pound Great Dane/mastiff mix on U.S. Highway 14A. He refutes claims by commenters who accuse him of “leaving the dog there to die." (Courtesy Pete Pepping) 
Powell resident Pete Pepping says he did everything he could to avoid hitting a 200-pound Great Dane/mastiff mix on U.S. Highway 14A. He refutes claims by commenters who accuse him of “leaving the dog there to die." (Courtesy Pete Pepping) 
Powell resident Pete Pepping says he did everything he could to avoid hitting a 200-pound Great Dane/mastiff mix on U.S. Highway 14A. He refutes claims by commenters who accuse him of “leaving the dog there to die." (Courtesy Pete Pepping) 
Powell resident Pete Pepping says he did everything he could to avoid hitting a 200-pound Great Dane/mastiff mix on U.S. Highway 14A. He refutes claims by commenters who accuse him of “leaving the dog there to die." (Courtesy Pete Pepping)
The Right Thing
Hebbler and many others condemned whoever was responsible for the “leaving the dog to die” on the highway remark. Pepping said that is entirely untrue.
“I pulled over right away,” he said. “I was freaking out. I called 911, and they dispatched the Park County Sheriff to the scene.”
Pepping said he was still at the scene when the dog’s owner, Hebbler’s father, arrived to collect his deceased pet.
“He said he had just let it out of the kennel, went into the garage or the shed or something, and when he came out, the dog was gone,” Pepping said. “He had no idea that the dog was going to run off.”
The sheriff helped load the dog onto the owner’s flatbed. Pepping stayed at the scene until the incident report was completed.
“He took my driver's license, registration, and proof of insurance, and it all came back clean,” he said. “He asked me if I was OK and if I needed the truck towed, which I didn't, thank God. Then he gave me the case number and went to follow up with the dog’s owner.”
Contrary to the statements of Hebbler and assumptions made by many commenters, Pepping said he was the first and last person at the scene.
Not only does Pepping believe he did everything he could have to avoid hitting the dog, but he also claimed he was exonerated by the sheriff.
“He said that he couldn’t see how I could have avoided it,” Pepping said. “When you’re going 70 mph, it still takes a while to slow down, even when you're breaking hard. You're not going to stop on a dime.”
Having All The Facts
Pepping’s truck, a 2008 Chevrolet Silverado, was severely damaged in the incident. The grill was shattered, and the front bumper was buckled inward in the middle.
“It’s pretty rough,” he said. “It’s almost 20 years old with 120,000 miles on it, but it drives like it's brand new. I’m filing a claim with the insurance company, but I'm afraid they’re going to want to total it because it’s so old.”
Pepping was still upset about what happened when a friend shared the Facebook discourse with him.
He posted “a lengthy reply” to Hebbler, explaining the circumstances and refuting the claims that he left the dog there to die.
“They're saying I'm beating heartless for what I told her, and I probably shouldn’t have used some of the phrases I used, but it really pissed me off that somebody who doesn't have the facts at all would post something like that,” he said.
As of Wednesday, Pepping said he has not heard from the Hebbler family.
In Wyoming there are no laws specifically about what someone needs to do when hitting a dog on a public road or highway. People can be penalized if they leave an injured animal after hitting it, as it could be seen as animal cruelty.
In these unfortunate incidents, most insurance companies recommend that people who’ve hit a large animal pull over, call local law enforcement, and avoid the injured animal, as it may respond aggressively and unpredictably.
Pepping said he did everything he could to avoid hitting the Hebblers’ dog, and everything he should have done after the tragically unavoidable incident.
“I’m very upset that I hit and killed that beautiful dog,” he said. “But I pulled over. I called 911. I waited at the scene.”
Since sharing his side of the story, many people have reached out to Pepping, commiserating with his circumstances and actions. Others haven’t been so understanding.
“One lady came back and said, ‘You need to find God,’” he said. “I set her straight. I said I do have God, and he was on my side in that accident.
"It could have been a lot worse. There could have been multiple vehicles involved, but it was just me and the dog."
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
