Local men step up to help shot dog

There's a special spot in Hell reserved for people like Raymond Wilson of La Vale, MD.

Fortunately, there are also people like Aron Wagner and Scott Robinson.

LAVALE, MD - A Garrett County man is charged with animal cruelty after sheriff's deputies say he shot a stray dog in the face last month.

That dog is alive and well, after going through four surgeries over the last few weeks, but doctors say he wouldn't have made it, if it hadn't been for two die-hard animal lovers who came to the rescue.

Aron wagner has always loved dogs, so when the one-year-old black lab showed up at his neighbor's house, he couldn't help but love him.

"He was really skinny, so we fed him, gave him water, but we didn’t tie him up because we didn’t know if he belonged to anyone,” he explains.

The trend continued for a couple of days, until the unthinkable happened.

"I got a call that his neighbor had shot the dog that we had been taking care of,” says Wagner.

He didn't know what to do so he called his friend, and fellow animal-lover, Brett Robertson, who then called Garrett County Animal Control.

"They pretty much were going to keep him through the night and not give him any sort of medication whatsoever, and I could basically see the dog suffering all night,” says Robertson.

So the pair took him to the LaVale Veterinary Hospital, where doctors say the odds were still against him.

"He had massive gun shot wounds to his face, but he came out wagging his tail. The entire side of his jaw, the tissue was just kind of blown away and the jaw bone was exposed,” says Dr. Kelly Malec.

But after four surgeries, the dog, now named "Chance," is close to one-hundred percent recovered. Aron has since adopted him, but wants people to understand that chance is one of the lucky ones.

"They have feelings, they feel the pain and there's just no sense in it. It doesn't help anything -- doesn't solve anything,” he says.

NBC25 could not reach the neighbor, Raymond Wilson, for comment. He has been charged with one count of animal cruelty. If convicted, he faces a penalty of up to 90 days in jail or $1,000.

Since Robertson accepted full financial responsibility for the dog, he owes more than $2,000 in medical bills. If you would like to help him pay it off, you can send a donation to LaVale Veterinary Hospital c/o Chance 913 National Highway LaVale, MD 21502.

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Nice job, Aron and Scott. I'm sending a small donation, and I encourage readers here to both send a few bucks and spread this story around so that more people can see it.