Ormond Beach, FL - The vet hospital originally said his dog is dying.
Then they said she was recovering before saying that she was dead, leaving the owner - 21-year-old Michael Shehan - angry and looking for answers.
It all started on Monday (February 11th) when an Ormond Beach police officer traveling down Atlantic Boulevard was flagged down by Shehan, saying that he accidentally shot himself and his dog.
According to the incident report, Shehan told police that he was in his home cleaning his pistol when it accidentally fired a round in the chamber. He said he then heard his dog, a German Shepherd named Sadie, yelp before running into her crate.
He walked over to find blood in her crate and realized that she had a gunshot wound to her hip. Shehan also noticed that he was shot as well in his left palm.
Shehan then grabbed Sadie and ran to his vehicle to rush her to a local vet, who in turn told him to take her to another location in Port Orange that had the proper tools.
As he rushed down Atlantic Avenue, he noticed the Ormond Beach officer sitting in the median, and then proceeded to flag him down.
Ormond Beach Fire Department responded to treat Shehan and stabilize Sadie.
At that point, Shehan went to the hospital and Sadie was rushed to Animal Emergency Hospital Volusia off South Yonge Street in Ormond.
Shehan told WNDB that while he was in the hospital getting treated, he received a call from his step-dad, who was helping with the incident, and he said that the vet called to tell him Sadie didn't seem well.
"The vet is telling us about how my dog is so pale and she's doing so bad," Shehan said.
According to Shehan, the vet asked for $1,000 in order to treat Sadie. However, Shehan said he didn't have the money, which led to them telling Shehan he had two choices. Either he signs over Sadie's ownership to the hospital so they can treat her or put her down.
"Me and my step-dad came to mind that we wanted to put Sadie down," Shehan said. "Because I don't want her to hurt. German Shepherds already have hip problems growing up and I basically shot her in the hip."
However, Shehan said that the vet refused to put Sadie down, saying that she was "in too good of health" to be put down.
"They were just telling us that my dog is pale and fading in and out and not looking good," Shehan said.
Shehan then told them to work on Sadie. But it apparently did not end there.
He said that after getting his hand treated he walked into the vet's office and learned that, according to them, Sadie was doing great. But it wouldn't be long until he learned that might not be the case.
"Now, they're telling the police and everyone that my dog is dead," stated Shehan.
Confusion then started to mount as Shehan tried to learn from the vet office whether or not his dog was dead.
Shehan told the vet office that, if Sadie is dead, he wanted her collar and tag from them, but that proved to be a challenge.
He said that it took multiple calls to the vet's office just for them to finally agree to mail Sadie's collar and tags to him.
"So there's that. But I want to find out what happened to my dog," Shehan said to WNDB. "I paid for her before she was even born. I've had her since she was the size of my hand. I have treated that dog better than I have treated me the entire time she lived with me. She's my princess."
Shehan then went on to say, "I cherished my dog, it kills me that accidentally I did what I did. It was an honest-to-God mistake."
He said that, through the help of family and friends, he raised the money for her treatment and pleaded with the hospital to release Sadie to him.
According to Shehan, the hospital still refused. He told them that he would pay for labor and everything else just to get his dog back. He said that if she was going to pass away because of the accident, he wanted her to pass away with him.
"I do not understand what's going on at all," Shehan noted. "If she's dead, then I have every right to her death certificate."
When asked if he was able to speak to the doctor, Shehan told WNDB that, after being discharged from the hospital, he tried. He got a ride from a friend to the animal hospital and asked for the doctor and to see Sadie. But the vet's office then turned down both of those requests.
"Every time I hear something it's a different story," said Shehan. "They can't even tell me if she's ok or not."
While WNDB was talking to Shehan, he was headed to the Ormond Beach Police Department to see if he could get any help from law enforcement regarding the status and safety of his dog.
A recent message from Shehan says that OBPD cannot disclose anything because the vet will not release any information regarding his dog.
Officials with OBPD have confirmed to WNDB that the vet told them the dog has died.
Photos of Sadie courtesy of Michael Shehan.
