When Katrina Campbell found a yellow lab severely injured and left to die in a ditch, she fell to her knees in helpless agony. The dog had initially been discovered by a local couple who immediately knew to seek help.
Having been stuck in the ditch for three weeks, the dog – who Campbell named ‘Trooper’ – was in such a bad state that his own faeces and urine had caused burns to his flesh.
For Campbell, the horrific sight of the immobile lump was almost too much to bear. She recalls that lifting him up was like picking up a “carcass”.
Rescuers initially believed that Trooper had been hit by a car; the impact from the collision giving him severe injuries and forcing him to lie prone in the ditch.
However, a far more harrowing truth was to be later discovered. Trooper had been both shot in the head and then beaten with a hammer, before being placed in the ditch in the hope that he would die.
Despite his brutal treatment, however, Trooper continued to fight. No sooner had Campbell knelt down to attend him, did he offer her a sign.
“I got down on my knees, kissed him on the head and said a prayer over him,” Campbell said.
“That’s when he lifted his head and he licked me on my face and I knew right then, I had to fight for this dog.”
After taking him from the ditch, Trooper was cared for by a team of workers from Missouri K9 Friends. They cleaned him up and began working on restoring some of his strength, while Mandy Ryan, the group’s president, began the hunt to find the person responsible for the dog’s mistreatment.
Finding the culprit
The subsequent investigation led her to Jason Edward Hampton, a 56-year-old man who immediately confessed to shooting the dog and then hitting him with a hammer to put him out of his misery.
Of her conversation with Hampton, Ryan said: “He answered the phone, I introduced myself and I asked about Trooper, and he immediately stated, ‘well, I’ll tell you right now it was me. I shot that dog and I hit him in the head with a hammer.'”
She continued: “He didn’t feel bad about hitting the dog in the head with a hammer, he just confessed it like it was nothing.”
According to reports, Hampton said he didn’t intend to shoot the dog in its head. Apparently, he was aiming to scare Trooper by firing at the ground, only, he missed and then used the hammer in an attempt to end the suffering.
The 56-year-old has since been charged with second-degree animal abuse, say USA Today.
You can see how Trooper is recovering in the video below:
Fortunately, Trooper is currently making a steady recovery. There has been successful fundraising to cover his medical costs, and it doesn’t look like he’s going to have difficulty when it comes to finding a new home. More than two dozen applications have been received with regards to people wanting to adopt him; a number that is only going to increase with time.
Thankfully, Trooper’s tragic story looks like it might have a happy ending. Of course, none of it would have been possible if it wasn’t for the actions of the heroes involved in saving him.
What do you think Hampton’s punishment should be? Please share this story to remind people that every dog deserves a second chance!