A Johnston County family says their dog has been put down being shot by a neighbor on Friday.

"People can't just shoot other people's dogs and get away with it, you know," said the dog's owner Donald Upchurch.

Upchurch said his dog, Biscuit, was hanging on by a thread at Saturday at is home in Butcher Pen.

"That's not right for someone just to shoot your dog because they want to,” said.

Five-year-old Biscuit was with Upchurch's son getting the mail when he started roaming away from the property. That was when the family says a single shot was fired, and a bullet went through Biscuit's front leg.

Now Upchurch said his other dogs, Lily and Dotty, have lost a family member.

"We invest a lot of time and money into our dogs, y'know. And our pets are just like our family, y'know. For someone to blatantly shoot one, that's not right,” said Upchurch

Johnston County Sheriff Jon Smith said they are investigating.

The neighbor who shot the dog told deputies it was aggressive towards their child, but Sheriff Smith said the dog was not on the neighbor's property before it was shot.

The report will be turned into the Johnston County District Attorney’s Office on Monday.

Upchurch told News 12 on Sunday Biscuit had been put down.