9-year-old dog dies after being shot by a gun at least 3 times on Big Island

Janelle Milewski Gomes searched for more than 24 hours, scouring the woods and checking lava tubes, after her 9-year-old dog Lehani escaped on Friday from her fenced yard off Old Poi Factory Road in Hōlualoa.

“We looked everywhere,” Gomes said.

Then on Sunday, Gomes heard a bark from her neighbor’s dog, which drew her attention to the window.

“And there she was, sitting on the wall,” Gomes said. “She couldn’t bark, she could do anything.”

Bloodied and battered, Gomes rushed her mixed-breed dog to the vet, thinking she had been attacked by a wild pig.

“The vet, at first, thought it was pigs as well,” Gomes said.

However, after some X-rays, the reality of Lehani’s injuries was more disturbing. She had been shot a minimum of three times.

Gomes said Lehani was shot through the ear, and the shot went through and shattered her jawbone. Her left and right paws were fractured by a bullet, and there was one stuck in her spine.

Gomes doesn’t know who could have shot Lehani. She said she was aware of a pack of wild dogs killing cattle down the road from her. While filing the police report, the officer told her that people have a right to defend their cattle.

“But I don’t think she made it that far,” Gomes said. “Wherever this happened, she made it home with two very weak back legs and really nothing on the right side because the one bullet paralyzed her.”

Gomes is devastated and dumbfounded by the tragedy.

“I know all of my neighbors around me are upset about it, too,” she said. “I’m not sure where it would have come from.”

Despite filling out a weapons incident report with the Hawai‘i Police Department, Gomes said that probably nothing will be done.

“He (the officer) basically told me it’s my responsibility to keep her in my gate,” Gomes said, adding she agreed. “But it’s also a human responsibility to not be nasty.”

Assistant Chief Rio Amon-Wilkins confirmed police took a report and determined a dog had been shot. The incident is under investigation.

Gomes just wants her neighbors to be aware that this happened and to keep their dogs safe.

Gomes said Lehani was a sweet and gentle mixed-breed dog. If someone had tried to give her a treat and called her over, the white pup with brown spots would’ve happily responded.

“They could have pet her and seen if she belonged to somebody,” Gomes said, adding she was microchipped. “It’s just heartbreaking to think that somebody’s just shooting dogs without even checking to see if they are someone’s pet.”

Gomes adopted Lehani seven years ago from the Hawai‘i Island Humane Society when she was 2 years old, along with her puppy. The pair were rescued after they were found in a box on the side of the road.

“She’s had a good life,” Gomes said.

Lehani slept on a La-Z-Boy bed in a dog pile with Gomes’ two other dogs.

Gomes said she spent $20,000 to fence in her seven acres to keep her dogs on the property. However, Lehani would sneak out from time to time when someone opened the gate.

She’d either go visit the neighbor dogs or chase a pig.

And on Friday, Gomes said, she had someone stop by to spray the property when Lehani escaped.

“Of course, dogs will be dogs, and they’ll want to go sneak out and play,” she said.

Gomes’ worry is that there are other neighborhood dogs that roam freely in her area. She doesn’t want anybody else to suffer the same loss.