myzaree

Tanya Meyer knew almost immediately that something wasn’t right.

She let her two dogs, Zoey and Maggie, out of the house and into the surrounding woods in the small town of Rome, Wis., where they live. Maggie came lumbering back within moments last Friday morning. But Zoey, a chocolate 1 1/2-year old Labrador mix, was nowhere to be seen.

“I started calling for her and she wasn’t answering," Meyer told the Los Angeles Times. She was worried because the area around her isolated central Wisconsin house is mostly forested, and regularly used as hunting grounds.

That day and through the weekend, Meyer -- along with her dad and her husband -- searched for Zoey without success.

On Monday, Meyer's husband, Chris, found Zoey on a neighbor’s property. She was lying on her side, lifeless, with an arrow wound in her neck. The dog was 30 feet from a hunter's tree stand, he told Rome police.

Acting Rome Police Chief Sgt. Jason Lauby confirmed to The Times that the dog was found dead with an arrow wound, but could not release information about the location of the wound or whether the dog was discovered on a neighbor's property. The Police Department and the Adams County Sherriff's Department are still investigating, he said.

Meyer believes Zoey was killed with the arrow Friday, then dragged into the neighbor's yard. She said she asked the neighbors, who come to the area on weekends to hunt, whether they had seen Zoey, and they said no. She said she would not identify them until the police investigation was over.

“To take the arrow out of her and to continue to hunt all weekend long, I just don’t have words for it. It sickens me,” Meyer said. “I never thought people in the world were like this.”

Meyer said she had no qualms about hunting. But justice for Zoey, she said, means the hunters who killed her should lose their licenses.

Christina Ackerman, executive director for the Adams County Humane Society -- where the Meyers adopted Zoey last year -- said Zoey's death does not reflect a problem with hunters in general, but only with the individuals who did this. She told The Times that "most people with a heart" would never do anything like this.

Zoey's death has touched off an international response online, with people reaching out from as far away as Iceland and Hong Kong. A post on a Facebook page Meyer and her husband started calledJustice for Zoey has been shared more than 125,000 times.

On the page, people have shared photos and memories of their own pets who’ve died, written kind words, and joined the Meyers' quest for justice. Some people even changed their profile pictures to photos of Zoey to increase awareness about what happened to her.

Meyer said she never expected this large a response. The overwhelming support has helped her and her family deal with the loss of her pet, who was very much part of the family.

When Meyer was pregnant with her daughter, now 6 months old, Zoey was always around her, and wanted to be around the baby after she was born, she said. Meyer jokes that Zoey, who liked to cuddle and be around people, rolled around so much to be petted that she even taught the baby how to roll over.

“My daughter just loved her, and they had this special bond,” Meyer said.

Meyer and her family buried Zoey on Monday, with a stick in her grave because she loved to play fetch.

TOWN OF ROME, Wis.

A couple in Adams County said neighboring hunters shot down their dog with a bow and arrow.

Now, their story and their message are reaching people across the globe.

Tanya Meyer and her husband, Chris, said their 1-year-old lab mix, Zoey, went missing Friday morning.

After calling her multiple times, Tanya said she had a feeling something had happened to her puppy, who didn’t tend to wander from the family’s 4 acres.

“I said finally, something is not right. I said, 'I just had that sick gut feeling,'” Tanya said. “I'm like, 'she's gone.'”

The Meyer’s started scouring the surrounding hunting grounds, asking neighbors if they had seen the dog. Tanya said the couple put up posters as well, and only heard of one sighting.

Tanya said some hunters staying in a nearby vacation home told them they threw sticks at the dogs to get them away but had not seen Zoey or the Meyer’s other dog, Maggie, since then.

On Sunday, Chris called Tanya with the news. He found the dog’s body on a neighbor’s property in the 400 block of 16th Avenue.

“He calls me and he goes, 'I found her.' And I'm like, 'where?' And he's like, 'it's not good,'” Tanya said. “And I said, 'not good? Why? What happened?' And then he's like, 'the cops have been notified.' He goes, 'It's under their tree stand.'”

Chris was talking about their neighbors who told them they had just shooed away the dogs.

Town of Rome police confirmed Zoey died of an arrow wound.

Tanya said that arrow went through her neck and into her chest. She said Zoey was found about 15 feet from the tree stand where she thinks those neighbors were hunting from.

“She was laying there all weekend long just under their tree stand,” Tanya said.

Tanya said this couldn’t have been an accident.

“You knew what you were shooting at,” Tanya said. “There's no denying you didn't know that was a dog.”

The Meyers plan on pressing charges.

Town of Rome investigators are working with Adams County deputies to look into this case, but no criminal charges have been filed.

In the meantime, Tanya created a Facebook page called Justice for Zoey. She said the page is growing more than she ever expected with response and support from all over the globe.

Chris posted Zoey’s story on his personal page, and as of 10 p.m. Tuesday, the photo and statement had been shared more than 82,000 times.

“That's all I'm hoping for is to get this out and hopefully get justice for it,” Tanya said.