Dog shot with arrow recovering

A black lab found Sunday shot with an arrow is recuperating and has been reunited with its owners.

Indiana State Police Trooper David Owsley found the owners of the black lab, which is about a year old, while patrolling Monday in the area where the dog had been found.

Dr. Glenn Pullen of Seymour Animal Hospital said the black lab would be sore for a while and would recommend to its owners that she should rest for about 10 days. He treated the dog Sunday.

“She should be fine,” Pullen said Monday. “She’s a real nice, friendly dog.”

Owsley said the dog — he didn’t know her name — had run off from her home and was apparently bothering a pet at a nearby residence when she was shot with the arrow.

“The dog wasn’t maliciously shot,” Owsley said. “It was in defense of another pet. They were trying to protect their pet.”

No charges are expected in the case, he said.

He declined to identify the owners of the black lab or who shot the dog.

So other than very carefully, how do you remove an arrow from a black lab?

“You have to control the pain,” Pullen said. “She was in a lot of pain and will be for a while. Then you grab hold and regress it out the way it came in.”

Pullen said the dog was shot in the left shoulder and said she was lucky.

“It entered at the point of the shoulder and went toward the back, underneath the shoulder blade, so it didn’t penetrate the chest, which is pretty amazing,” he said.

He credited Owsley with cutting off part of the arrow to reduce chances of additional damage and with leaving enough of the projectile to aid its removal.

Owsley described the arrow as a field arrow with no flared, sharpened point like those used for hunting.

Police were alerted to the dog having been shot, and a nearby resident reported they had seen an injured dog near their home Sunday morning, Owsley added.