A 70-year-old Maryland man named Robert Anthony Harley has been charged in connection with the April shooting of Maisie, a Belgian Malinois who, reportedly, Harley believed was a fox.
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According to The Baltimore Banner, Harley was charged with two counts of animal cruelty after allegedly shooting Maisie back in late April.
As reported by CBS News, Maisie originally went missing on April 20. While searching for the dog, the owner, Shannon Smith-Wood, posted photos of her dog online in the hopes of locating her. As per the Banner, Smith-Wood even went to the extent of hiring drone pilots to scan that area.
Eventually, however, Smith-Wood received a video from a friend, showing Maisie near an intersection. In the video, a woman and a child are debating whether Maisie is a dog. However, what the video also recorded was an eerie conversation coming from a man talking on his phone. It appears that the man believed that Maisie was a coyote.
“There’s a coyote out here,” the man said. “Where’s the shotty at, man? I’m gonna drop him. He’s definitely not afraid of us, he’s not running. He’s curious, which is the sketchy part.”
Maisie Shot
As per the Banner, the man in the video was Harley’s son. According to detectives, Harley retrieved a shotgun and shot at Maisie twice. The dog, according to them, “did not display any aggression.”
Shannon Smith-Wood, as per CBS News, then received a call from one of Harley’s relatives. Reportedly, they confessed that Maisie had been shot after being mistaken for a fox.
“My worry at that point was she was hurt,” Smith-Wood told the outlet. “So I said, please tell me, and they said – they confirmed – they know she’s dead.”
“I really believed that we’d find her,” Smith-Wood added. “She wasn’t far from home, she was right there, and I just didn’t believe anybody would shoot her. You know, if you thought she was a threat, and you had your kids, or you thought she was a coyote, call 911. It’s crazy.”
Ever since Maisie’s death, Smith-Wood has been struggling with her loss. “I can’t think, I can’t work. I just don’t even know, I don’t understand it,” she said. However, she also has stood up for Robert Anthony Harley, who has been receiving death threats after his name was made public.
In the place where Maisie was allegedly shot, only bloodied leaves were found. As of May 8, as per the Banner, Maisie’s body continues to be missing.