A woman’s dog was fatally shot in the face when he ventured off her property in Vermont, and now her neighbor is being charged.

Jess Buxton, of Danville, told WCVB affiliate NBC5 she let her five dogs out to go to the bathroom on Sunday afternoon, but Berkeley, her 1-year-old black Lab, didn’t return with his four furry siblings.

“My 5 dogs and I were outside playing when Berkeley took off in the woods on my land,” she wrote on a Facebook page called “Justice For Berkeley.” “He didn’t come back even after I called and called to him.”


Buxton and her mother searched for Berkeley for about five hours, and when she let her dogs out again later in the day, she followed them to the woods and found Berkeley there, injured with blood on his jaw and neck, she wrote.

Buxton rushed Berkeley to the vet, and was told that her dog was badly injured, according to the post.

“He had a broken jaw and the bullet went through his skull, and he was already showing signs of neurological damage,” she wrote. “They did everything they could, but he eventually went into cardiac arrest.”

A news release from the Vermont State Police indicates that authorities were notified of what happened the following day.

As a result, Frederick Keenan, 72, of Danville, Vermont, is being charged with aggravated animal cruelty via a citation from state police, the release said. He’s scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 16.

“My life mission from this point on is to fight for these dogs,” Buxton told NBC5. “When (something like this) actually happens to you, you can’t even describe it.”