Late Friday night – shots fired from a Kalashnikov rifle were aimed at my two pet dogs and fatally wounded both of them. I am devastated and broken-hearted at the unnecessary cruelty of a Nissan Patrol car containing a driver in his mid-twenties with a rifle, a teenager and 3 kids in the back of the car.
I had first spotted them cruising around the area at 9pm, when I was outside the farm playing with and feeding both dogs. They passed slowly by, watching us, with Arabic music blaring out of the vehicle and kids hanging out of the window, yelling something inaudible at me. I took no notice and didn’t think anything of it. Kabd is often full of that sort of yobbish behaviour, particularly at the weekend.
Just after 12.30am, I had let my dogs outside for a quick run-around before bed-time and suddenly heard what I thought was fireworks. Tragically, it turned out to be rapid gun fire. By the time I reached them, both dogs had been shot in the side and were writhing in pain. The killers must have known they were pets but had decided to shoot them anyhow!
A few of our friends jumped into vehicles to try and find the culprits. It was difficult at first but then after a few minutes, the sound of gun shots was discernible in the distance.
Eventually they caught up with them in Block 6, where they were hard at work killing more dogs and cats at close range. When confronted about what they had done, the killers admitted that they had been shooting at dogs most of the day and didn’t seem to think there was anything particularly wrong with that. A heated argument ensued, with one of the killers eventually giving a half-hearted apology for killing our pets. An apology isn’t going to bring them back!
This morning as we were driving out of Kabd, there was an eerie silence. Slain bodies of dogs were scattered around the area. We are heartbroken - when will this senseless cruelty and madness ever stop?
Frances Lennon
