Camden News | Labradoodle Sam | Air Rifle Sniper

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Camden News - by TOM FOOT and PAUL KEILTHY
Published: 17 July 2008

Labradoodle Sam

Dog shot twice by air rifle sniper

Pet targeted in family’s back garden

A DOG owner told last night of the horror of nursing her pet through gunshot wounds after a sniper took pot-shots while it played in her Highgate back garden.
Emily Simpson said Labradoodle dog Sam had been shot twice in six months. The one-year-old dog has been bandaged up after the most recent attack on Tuesday afternoon,
“I heard a yelp and I just knew,” said Ms Simpson, who only moved into the area last year. “Blood was pouring out of his side. I was at the vet’s until 1am – and when I got home I lay with Sam who was shaking until he fell asleep. My daughter came into the bedroom at 4am in tears. She just loves Sam and Sam is really amazing with her. After it happened the first time in February, she did not sleep for a month. She had blood on her hands. It was absolutely terrifying and really upsetting for the whole family.”
Ms Simpson rushed Sam – a cross between a Labrador and Poodle – to the vet following the horrific attack in their Woodsome Road garden in Highgate.
The pellets had punctured the puppy’s body and leg and one has gone so deep it cannot be removed. “It’s lead poisoning for him, I’m told,” said Ms Simpson. “The vet has said any major surgery would be life-threatening.”
Armed police were despatched to the scene, but on discovering an air rifle was used passed the case over to Highgate police who are investigating.
Ms Simpson said: “I won’t let my children go out in the garden alone. Now every time I go in the garden I am watching out at the windows.”
Ms Simpson – a former newspaper feature editor who now works in PR – said she planned to grow tall trees and put up a protective fence to shield the garden from gunfire. “I will not be kept prisoner in my own home,” she said.
n In a separate incident, a dog died on Friday after being thrown from a 10th floor window from the high-rise Ampthill estate in Camden Town. Residents in the estate’s Oxenholme block called police at 5pm, who arrived to find a woman cradling the dead dog on the estate’s concrete forecourt. A police spokesman said: “This appears to be a cruel act and whilst no arrests have taken place, enquiries continue.”

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ON August 1 this year, our beloved Bedlington terrier Foggy was shot dead in our enclosed garden with a precision air rifle. Please visit the commemorative website, where we have an online petition to convey the strength of public feeling around these heinous crimes. 1184 signatures and counting. Please sign and circulate widely. Thank you. http://www.rememberfoggy.com
Andrew Currah