7-year-old Charlie gets loose in Friday’s rain; found later with gunshot wound

Jeff Stanton said his life changed twice because of a greyhound named Charlie.

First, when he adopted the dog five years ago, and again when he found Charlie dead after apparently being shot Friday night.

Tucson police are treating the case as an animal cruelty felony and Arizona Greyhound Rescue plans to offer a reward.

Rescue president Mary Freeman said reward details will be ironed out this week.

Stanton and Freeman both saw Charlie after his death and think he suffered horribly.

At first, their theory was that the 7-year-old greyhound, who got away while being taken for a walk in the rain Friday, was shot in a back leg, became scared and bolted into traffic on Tanque Verde Road, where he was hit and killed.

The officer who arrived on the scene agreed Charlie had been shot, said Sgt. Mark Robinson, a Tucson police spokesman. But the officer did not believe Charlie had subsequently been hit by a vehicle.

The dog’s body was found on the Tanque Verde Bridge, not far from where he got away at The View at Catalina apartments, 8000 E. Wrightstown Road.

A passing motorist reported Charlie’s death.

“I must admit, I am still in a state of shock and bewilderment over this,” Stanton said Monday. “It’s like part of me died with Charlie.”

“It horrified me,” Freeman said of Charlie’s death. “It made me question why anyone would do this. This dog was extremely gentle, a couch potato kind of guy. Some wacko did this.”

Charlie is survived by two greyhounds Stanton had also adopted from the group.

Stanton works as a designer and photographer for the Tucson Citizen and keeps a photo of Charlie above his desk. He also took photos to document Charlie’s wounds.

“This was so difficult because my last memories are of him laying dead on the side of the road,” Stanton said.

Robinson urged anyone with information to call 911 or 88-CRIME.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Local. Tags for this post: Crime/Safety, Local-Crime/Safety, page-a04, Ryn Gargulinski. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.