WIRT, NY-- An Allegany County man is accused of shooting an arrow through his neighbor's dog.
Clooney is a roughly one year old Beagle - hound mix now recuperating after her weekend ordeal. She had bones in her leg shattered Saturday night, when she was shot with an arrow that pierced one of her front legs. The damage is clearly visible in an X-ray.
This happened at the Allegany County animal rescue operation called Rescue Pups, which Lisa Hitchcock operates on Pangburn Road in the rural town of Wirt.
Hitchcock told us, "Clooney and I were outside and she was barking because she was just being Clooney. And I heard a pop and then I heard her scream and she ran away. And I called for my boyfriend and he came running and then we found Clooney and she had an arrow through her leg."
Hitchcock called state police who then questioned and arrested Hitchcock's property neighbor 63-year-old Marvin Boncore on animal cruelty and reckless endangerment charges. She says he doesn't like her dogs, but police say the dog wandered onto his property as Hitchcock was fixing a boundary fence.
"What the police said was that he was using a target arrow and he didn't think it would penetrate her," said Hitchcock.
While Hitchcock says she is fostering Clooney, who was abandoned twice and is now up for adoption, she wanted to make sure the dog is properly treated with the arrow now removed. But the veterinary care with surgery on the dog's leg is expensive that's why Hitchcock launched a Go Fund me account.
She says it's "painful" to see Clooney suffer this wound, "Clooney is always good when she meets children. She never jumps on them. She is sweet. She even licked the state trooper's hand when he came and did his report. After she was hurt, she didn't even know him and that just says a lot for her character. To have an arrow through her leg and then to lick the state trooper's hand."
Clooney has surgery Tuesday in Orchard Park and the cost of her care is now more than $6,000. Hitchcock's Go Fund Me account has nearly reach its goal, but the amount doesn't include the cost of after-care for the dog.
Hitchcock is frustrated that a judge may not assess Boncore for the cost because of the Go Fund Me account. He'll be back in court later this month..