A Putnam County woman whose cat was being attacked by a dog went to jail after she hunted down and killed the dog, according to authorities.
Dawn Rochelle Walker, 53, of Plum Creek Road, Eatonton, was arrested around 8 a.m. Friday, Oct. 7, on charges of cruelty to animals – death of animal by malice means, discharge of firearms on property of another, and discharging a firearm within the city. She was released on a total of $7,000 property bonds.
According to a Putnam County Sheriff’s Office report by deputy Patrick Isbell, a woman posted fliers around her neighborhood that she was searching for her lost grayand- white female bulldog. A flier was seen on a stop sign on Briar Patch Road by a neighbor, who called the woman and told her they thought the dog had been shot and killed on Denham Road.
Another witness reportedly told Isbell that the large dog came up on her front porch around 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 29. The woman said she yelled at the dog and it ran around the back of her house. The woman said she then saw Walker walking past her house carrying a silver handgun, and asked if the dog belonged to her.
“Walker told her, ‘If I can get a bullet between his eyes, I’m going to kill him,’” Sheriff Howard Sills read from the incident report.
The two witnesses said that a few moments later, they heard a gunshot behind their house a few moments later. They said they didn’t recognize the dog until they later saw the flier on a stop sign and subsequently searched and found the deceased dog in the woods on Denham Road and called the number on the flier.
Isbell went to Walker’s house, and Walker told him the dog attacked her cat inside her garage, and she shot at the dog to stop the attack, but she wasn’t sure if she hit it or not. She said the dog became aggressive when she shot at it. Isbell asked Walker if she followed the dog out of the yard and down the road, and she reportedly said she didn’t want to say anything else.
The handgun used in the dog slaying was identified as a .357 Smith & Wesson Magnum, according to the sheriff.