U.S. military veteran Chad Stricker lost his 10-month-old wolfdog Nymeria and hadn’t been able to locate her for days. But then one day, he found her collar in his mailbox along with a chilling note.
The note read, “I’m sorry to inform you that your dog was shot and killed Saturday night while digging through my garbage. It did not suffer and I did not take pleasure in killing it. There is a county leash law which you should abide by so that I do not have to kill any more of your pets.”
As Fox News reported, along with a picture of her, and a personality description, Nymera’s collar was large and yellow.
“There’s not a mean bone in her body,” Stricker said to the Biloxi Sun Herald. “She was good with other dogs, good with kids. She was super lovable.”
On Nymera’s collar was her home address, as well as Stricker’s phone number. The note in the mailbox wasn’t signed, nor did the writer of the note make any other attempt to contact Stricker regarding her death.
Stricker was left heartbroken.
“I was sick to my stomach,” he explained to the Sun Herald. “To think that someone killed her while we had been out looking for her, for digging in the garbage. An animal is not worth more than your trash or the time to make a phone call?”
Pearl River County residents whose pets escape their yards or wander off leash to the point of becoming “nuisance animals” have little to no help should their pets get shot. The law gives property owners the right to shoot animals, whether they’re pets or not. Throughout the county’s history, the law has been used multiple times to justify all animal killings.
After Nymeria’s body wasn’t returned, Stricker spent days searching for it on his own.
“I’ve been looking for buzzards and vultures. I’ve asked on social media for whoever did it to leave her body at my driveway or even tell me where they dumped it,” he said. “We don’t know what happened to her so there’s no closure.”
He also wrote his own open letter to the “coward” who killed Nymeria and blasted it all over social media.
“It’s sad to think I have a neighbor of your moral character living so close to me that would do this. Do I hate you, no, I pity the person you are and those who have to tolerate you. I pray one day you come to realize what you have done and teach those in your household to be better,” his letter wrote.
Fox News states that he is still in search of her body since he hopes to give her a proper burial.
