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Thurston County, Washington police are investigating what appears to be an unintentional, but fatal shooting of Mozart, the 9-year old Belgian Malinois belonging to actress Salma Hayek, on her ranch in Yelm.
According to a police report, Kelly Littlejohn, a caretaker at the ranch, called police on February 19th to report finding Mozart dead on the property.
Earlier that day, Littlejohn went for a horseback ride on the property, along with several of Hayek’s dogs. At one point during the ride, two of Hayek’s dogs took off running after hearing dogs barking from an adjacent property. She collected the dogs and returned home to find that Mozart had taken off again. Littlejohn re-traced her steps and found the 9-year old dog deceased on a trail.
Hayek requested a necropsy. It was determined that a .177 cal. lead pellet was found to have traveled between two ribs and nicked a pulmonary artery causing Mozart to internally bleed out.
A neighbor admitted to shooting the dog with a pellet gun when he entered his garage and began fighting with his own two dogs. He only intended to scare the dogs away and, in fact, did not believe he had struck the dog, as he took off running after the neighbor fired.
The Sheriff’s office does not expect to file charges against the neighbor, but an investigation is still pending.
Joyce Soldo
says:R.I.P. beautiful Mozart. Your Mom misses you, but I’m sure you are with lots of new friends after crossing the Rainbow Bridge. My heartfelt condolences to you Salma Hayek.