Collingwood woman upset that police ran over, shot her dog - Action News
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Collingwood woman upset that police ran over, shot her dog

A woman in Collingwood is questioning why police ran over her dog several times before shooting it Monday night.

'It's just not right,' owner of dog run over by OPP says

Karen Sutherland's 21-year-old deaf dog, Merrick, got out of her backyard in Collingwood, Ont., during a storm in mid-October and ended up wandering around the neighbourhood before being run over and shot dead by police. (Natalie Kalata/CBC)

A woman in Collingwood is questioning why police ran over her dog several times before shooting it Monday night.

"Even if it is a coyote or araccoonor anything like that you just don't run animals over like that. It's just not right," Karen Southerland told CBC News.

Southerlandsaid the Ontario Provincial Police apologized for killing herdog, named Merrick.

The OPP also said it had contacted the owner and that it is continuing to investigate the incident that was captured in three videosand posted onFacebook.

Earlier this week, the OPPsaid they were responding to a report of an aggressive and "possibly rabid" coyote in the town, but on Wednesday, the force said a dog was run over by a police cruiser and then shot by an officer.

The videos appear to show a cruiser running over an animal more than once. In one of the videos, an officer then gets out of a cruiser and a shot is heard. Moments before the shot is heard a person is heard on the video saying, "Oh my God, he's going to shoot it!"

Southerland called Merrick her "sidekick" and said. "she's just an old dog that was kind of lost and running around and was mistaken for a rabid, vicious coyote that a cop felt he had to run over three times and then shoot her."

Sarah Leggett, who posted the video on Facebook, disagrees with the police, who saidthe dog posed a danger to residents and other animals in the community.

"To say it was aggressive , dangerous or rabid, there's no way." Leggett told CBC. "I stood at the end of my driveway as it was right there and it didn't do anything."

Southerland said she plans to bury Merrickon a nearby farm.

The videos are posted below. Warning: they contain graphic images.

With files from Natalie Kalata, CBC News