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Family demands justice after dog shot in head with arrow in Newaygo County

Posted at 10:06 PM, Nov 14, 2017
and last updated 2017-11-14 22:21:48-05

NEWAYGO COUNTY, Mich. -- A family from Newaygo County is searching for answers after their dog was shot in the head with an arrow, which they say was not an accident. They say a neighbor shot their dog after she scared away a deer he had been hunting.

Luckily the dog named Piper survived, but she's been left with severe injuries. The Kyser family was able to take Piper home on Tuesday, but she has a long road ahead.

Piper lost her right eye and eventually will lose hearing in her right ear. They're happy she's alive, but still want justice for their beloved dog who they say was just playing around at the time.

It's a moment owners Millie and Wayne Kyser didn't know they would get.

"We are ecstatic," said Millie Kyser. "She's our baby, one of them, we have a few, but she means a lot to us."

Ecstatic is the only word to describe how she feels after learning Piper was able to go home.

"We knew we had to do everything that we could to hopefully save her," said Kyser.

On Sunday, Piper was shot in the head with an arrow, allegedly by Millie's sister's neighbor. They say Piper was in the woods behind her home playing with two other dogs and ran towards her neighbor who was up in his deer blind.

"He said that they scared a deer off when they came playing through the woods and he was upset," said Kyser.

They say the man shot Piper in the head. Piper then ran more than 100 yards back home.

"Piper made it back to the house," said Kyser. "She made it through barbed wire fencing even though the arrow was sticking out of her head."

They scrambled to get Piper to Blue Pearl Veterinary Hospital in Grand Rapids where she went into surgery.

"The head of the arrow basically went through her eye socket and essentially through her ear canal and lodged in the soft tissues of her neck," said Dr. Amanda Conkling, veterinary surgeon.

Despite losing sight and hearing on her right side, Dr. Conkling says Piper is lucky.

"Basically a couple more inches towards her nose and it would've penetrated her brain," said Conkling. "It very easily could've been fatal for her. She's fortunate."

Piper's owners say they've contacted the DNR and are hoping to get more information soon.

"He was up in a tree so there was no way for her to be violent towards him," said Kyser. "To do what he did was wrong. Never once did we know what there was an issue until it was too late."

The family has a Go Fund Me page set up for Piper's medical expenses. She will likely need more surgeries in the future.