11-year-old boy’s support dog shot and left with no eyesight; family wants answers

TETON — A husband and wife are searching for answers after their 11-year-old son’s dog was shot and left with no eyesight.

Keli Huskinson and her family live in Teton. The incident happened on June 6 between 4:30 p.m. and 5 p.m.

Her son Gideon has autism and his dog, Oso — a 4-year-old Australian shepherd poodle mix — helps support him. Huskinson says Oso is known to be friendly, and people at church know him very well.

Last Tuesday, her son and another family member were cleaning up the yard at their house when they lost sight of Oso after he wandered off.

“This is the first time he’s ever left the yard without the kids and so we don’t know if he was following another dog or if he had been kind of lured away,” Huskinson said. “My husband heard a gunshot and sent the kids to look for him and they found him out on the road just bloodied up.”

She said it was traumatizing for Gideon because he found Oso, picked him up and brought him back to the house.

After taking Oso to a veterinarian in Rexburg, Huskinson discovered Oso had been shot with a shotgun. An X-ray showed there were hundreds of pellets in his body. They found that his right eye had collapsed and the retina was detached in his left eye. He is now completely blind.

It’s been hard for Gideon.

“My son would not leave Oso’s side. He slept in the living room with him. He would bring out his books and read to him,” she said. “He’s like, ‘Well now he will never catch a frisbee again, he’ll never play ball again’ and I think that’s the hardest for my son to grasp right now, because so much is going to change and it’s not fair. We still don’t know why Oso was shot or who did it.”

She reported the incident to the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office. Fremont County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Bart Quayle told EastIdahoNews.com a deputy responded and there are no current suspects or similar incidents in Teton. The sheriff’s office is investigating but it’s difficult because there are not a lot of leads currently.

Over the weekend, Huskinson said she and her husband have gone out and knocked on doors to see if anyone heard the gunshot.

“I was just trying to narrow it down because the laws of like, if a dog is in your yard chasing your chickens or if they are attacking you, or you know what I mean? Like maybe that’s what happened, then we could cope with it and accept it a little bit easier but everyone we have talked to has said, ‘Are you serious? That’s horrible…who would do that?'” she explained.

Her family is left adapting to the new changes and financial costs due to Oso possibly needing surgery. She has created a GoFundMe for Oso’s medical bills and other items such as sensory dog toys. She doesn’t want to give up on Oso, because he’s an important part of the family.

“We have to retrain Oso with new commands and clicker devices so he can hear everything, so that’s where we are at,” she said. “We love our dog and we are not going to give up on him. My emotions have shifted to really hot rage anger to trying to support my dog.”

She’s hoping that he can continue to recover and that nobody else will experience what she’s gone through.

“I don’t want this happening to anybody else’s dog because it’s horrible to go through this,” she said.

Quayle said if anyone saw the dog get injured or knows any information to help close the case out, to call the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office at (208) 624-4482.