Marlon Caballero Pomona California Labrador dog shot dead by neighbor after it entered man’s yard while chasing squirrel.
Could it be any more heartless? A California man is facing animal cruelty charges after fatally shooting his neighbor’s dog after the animal chased a squirrel into the man’s backyard.
Marlon Caballero, of Pomona, told Fox LA that the family’s 8-year-old dog was shot dead on Sunday — just two weeks after they moved to the neighborhood.
Caballero said Canine had been playing on their property November 27 when the beloved family pet began chasing a squirrel around 1pm.
The animal ended up accidentally jumping over a fence into the neighbor’s yard, according to the owner – and that’s when things took a violent turn.
The dog may have been unfamiliar with the landscape as the family had just moved into the neighborhood weeks before.
‘I’m pleading with the neighbor’
‘I go to the neighbor’s fence and call my labrador to come over. I go from one side of the fence to the other side of the fence all of a sudden I hear three gunshots,’ Caballero wrote in a Nextdoor post.
He said when he looked over the top of the fence, he saw his neighbor holding a gun and his labrador wounded.
Caballero said he pleaded with his neighbor to let him retrieve the canine after he shot him three times, only for the neighbor to refuse.
‘I’m pleading with the neighbor, ‘Hey, please give me my dog, let me have my dog. I can save him if you give me my dog,” Caballero told FOX LA.
When Caballero ran back into his home to call 911, he heard several more gunshots.
‘He goes to the back of his yard and basically unloads another at least six rounds from the revolver that I saw that he had,’ Caballero told Fox LA.
He said he could still hear his ‘best friend’ whimpering.
‘How can anyone be so cruel’
The neighbor allegedly told Caballero: ‘No, your dog is already dead.’
‘And from right there, it just broke my heart. Just how could somebody do that to [a] dog,’ the devastated dog owner said.
The neighbor, who has not been named, was charged with animal cruelty and discharging a firearm in a public area.
‘I bought this property solely for my doggy to run around freely. For this to happen, it’s unimaginable,’ said Caballero, who has filed a restraining order against the neighbor.
‘My heart was turned into a million pieces. How can anyone be so cruel’ Caballero wrote.
