Dog shot with pellet gun outside Park City; police look for leads

Dog shot with pellet gun outside Park City; police look for leads

(Allison Dittmer)


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PARK CITY — A dog was shot with a pellet gun Tuesday afternoon in the Snyderville Basin area next to Park City, and now the search is on to see who caused the dog harm and why.

The dog, Abe, was shot sometime Tuesday afternoon while he was out wandering the neighborhood on his own. The next day the owner noticed something was wrong, and a vet found a pellet was lodged in his kidney.

Abe's owner — Allison Dittmer — said Abe is frequently on his own, and that most of the neighbors know the dog and Dittmer.

“It scares me to think that one of my neighbors, if they had a problem, it would have been great if they had called me, or at least called animal control,” Dittmer said. “But to go out on your own and just shoot an animal is not the way to solve it.”

Dittmer noticed that Abe was a bit shaken when he came home and noticed a small puncture wound, but he started eating and she didn't think much of it that first night.

“The next morning he just really started deteriorating, he seemed like he was in a lot of pain, he was cowering so I took him into the vet and they did an X-ray and saw a pellet in his left kidney that was in line with the puncture wound,” Dittmer said.


I don't know that we will ever find the person, not that I want them to pay retribution, but I just want people to know the severity of what those things can do.

–Allison Dittmer


The vet did surgery and repaired eight holes in Abe's intestine. Dittmer called it a miracle for the 13-year-old dog. Now the dog will need some return visits and medication, but Dittmer called Abe her first child before she had children and is just happy to have some extra time with the dog.

The owner called animal control, who asked the sheriff’s office to step in, according to Ron Bridge, a detective sergeant with the Summit County Sheriff's Office. Bridge said they will exhaust their efforts even though they haven’t found any leads yet.

“So far we’ve interviewed a number of people, but we don’t have anyone at this time who are leading us to a suspect,” Bridge said.

Dittmer said that there are other situations of cats and dogs being shot by pellet guns where the animal had died in the past few years in that area.

“I don’t know that we will ever find the person, not that I want them to pay retribution, but I just want people to know the severity of what those things can do,” Dittmer said.

Unfortunately for those involved, there are still lots of questions lingering that may never get sorted out.

“The reason why this dog was injured, shot with a pellet gun, obviously we do not know the answer at this time,” Bridge said. “Hopefully if we are able to obtain that suspect, that suspect can explain his or her reasoning for injuring this dog.”

Bridge pointed out that this is a crime, that shooting a dog is animal cruelty unless it is self-defense.

If anyone has any information contact the Summit County Sheriff at 435-615-3600.

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