BAUXITE, Ark. (KTHV) - A week after a teen was shot in the leg with an arrow at a busy Little Rock park, a dog was shot with a similar hunting arrow in Bauxite. While these incidents are not connected, they do serve as a stark reminder for bow hunters.
In Arkansas, bow hunting season kicked off on September 23 and runs through late February. We are just a couple of days in and already two unintended targets have been shot with arrows.
That leaves many concerned for what's ahead in the next five months of the season if two accidents can happen so quickly.
"I'm sorry. It has been a really rough weekend,” said Amy Reaves, as she leaned in to kiss her dog, Scruffy, on the top of the head.
On Saturday morning, she woke to a horrifying scream.
“I went outside and saw the momma dog running the weed line and realized something is going on. It was just a high-pitched screech noise," she recalled.
That's when she saw Scruffy with an arrow through his body.
"He was shot at the top and it went through below his spine,” Reaves explained, while cradling the freshly stitched dog.
Scruffy's brother and running partner, Duke never came home. The Reaves family blanketed the area with missing posters, keeping faith that maybe he got scared or someone found him.
"My 8-year-old, they took his friend [with him]. So, that's so emotional from me. It was terrible,” the mother said.
The Reaves live on about 82 acres of land. The dogs like to run around in a wooded area on their land, but hunters frequent the area during hunting season.
Reaves said it wouldn't be unusual for one of her dogs to run into a hunter during bow season, but she's really hopeful that one of them didn't mistake her dog for a deer or intentionally meant to harm it.
Both Arkansas Game and Fish and the Saline County Sheriff's Office are looking in to the situation. If someone purposefully shot the dogs, they could be facing serious consequences.
"It's insane. I just can't imagine as a hunter being in a deer stand and seeing a dog walk by and thinking it's ok to kill it. It's not ok," she said. "The dog will go off. This is somebody's family. You can't just kill things you're not going to eat. It's so inhumane. I can't wrap my head around it.”
Reaves said she really wants to know what happened to Duke, to give her son and her family some closure. If you know what happened to him, or have seen Duke, email her at AReaves@Lamar.com.