Nov. 29 – The Maine Warden Service is investigating after a dog was shot in North Yarmouth late Friday morning.
Three people were walking their dogs on a marked trail in the Knight’s Pond Preserve around 11 a.m. when someone shot one of the dogs, which had wandered a few feet in front of the group, said Mark Latti, spokesman for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. in a statement Friday evening.
It’s not clear who shot the dog, Latti said. He described the gunman, believed to be a hunter, as a man in his 30s with dark hair and scruffy facial hair, adding that a man matching that description left the area in a dark, large pickup truck.
Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Commissioner Judy Camuso said the shooting was “heinous and inexcusable, and is made worse by the cowardly act of the gunman who fled the scene.”
“One individual’s incomprehensible and abhorrent act damages the reputation of all 230,000 of Maine’s hunters,” Camuso said. “We are all outraged by this atrocity.”
Maine Operation Game Thief is offering a $2,000 reward for information leading to the shooter’s arrest, Latti said. Officials are asking people with security cameras near Henry Road and Edna Lane to check their footage for footage of the fleeing truck.
Cumberland Police Chief Charles Rumsey said the director is leading the ongoing investigation, but did not provide specific details about who was involved or what happened in a statement on social media.
Knight’s Pond Preserve is a 212-acre parcel in North Yarmouth and Cumberland that allows hunting and other recreational uses. Maine’s deer hunting season ends Saturday.
Anyone with information is urged to call the warden service at 624-7076.
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