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BELMONT COUNTY, Ohio – A hunter in Ohio is facing charges after allegedly shooting two pet dogs.

Pete Byers says he was getting ready to take his two dogs on a work trip to Pittsburgh, but when it was time to load them in the car, they were gone.

Byers enlisted several friends and neighbors to look for 5-year-old Emmy and 6-year-old Bella.

According to WTOV, Byers learned that hunters heard gunshots and a dog yelping in the area. They eventually followed tracks that led to Michael Chedester’s tree stand.

“I asked him, did you kill my dogs man, I want to know so I can bury them. Meanwhile he keeps eyeing this new brush pile. That’s new and fresh,” Byers said. “Then he kind of looks down his nose at me and says ‘yeah, I killed your dogs. You want me to buy you two new ones? I’ll buy you two new dogs.”

Byers says he looked at the brush pile and saw Emmy’s paw sticking out from the logs.

Chedester will face two felony charges of violating the newly-imposed Goddard’s Law, which just went into effect in September. It makes it a felony to knowingly cause serious physical harm to a companion animal.

Chedester responded to the charges and criticism on his Facebook page.