Living out here on the West Mesa is beautiful and peaceful most of the time. However, like anywhere else, there’s an ugly side that recently became very apparent.
A few months ago, a neighbor, whom we’ve only met or spoken with a handful of times, sent us a text claiming he shot at our dog because it killed his chickens, and that we owed him for the damage. The odd part was, this text came early in the morning when all of our dogs were still inside with us. As many who’ve stayed at our campground know, our dogs are always inside at night, and we only let them out when we’re outside with them. We explained this to the neighbor, but he insisted it was our dog, claiming it ran off toward our place.
This neighbor lives about three-quarters of a mile away, so while it’s possible a dog could have headed in our direction, it didn’t mean it was ours. To settle the matter, I sent him a video of our dogs that morning. He, in turn, sent a video of the dog he shot at—a skinny black dog that looked nothing like ours. Despite clear evidence that the dog wasn’t ours, he grew angry, insisting it was.
Things escalated quickly. He took to social media, publicly bashing us with false claims, including accusations of us being Satanists, all because of a dog that wasn’t even ours. It was baffling. A friend, who didn’t like what was being said online, sent us screenshots of the posts. We confronted the neighbor about it, and his response was simply that we “deserved it.”
He went further, threatening to shoot any dog that came onto his property, even saying that if it was our dog, he’d hurt it and let it crawl home. We decided it was best to disengage and wished him well, hoping it would end there.
A few days later, we heard a gunshot, followed by the sound of a dog yelping. The next day, we checked our cameras and saw the same black dog—this time severely injured. We reached out to our community, asking if anyone had seen the dog, as it clearly needed medical attention. Sadly, a few days later, a neighbor found the dog dead. It had suffered a slow, painful death after being shot. It broke our hearts—regardless of whether it had killed chickens, no animal deserves to suffer like that.
The situation worsened over the weekend. Our close friends and neighbors, who have a Great Pyrenees named Ruby, reported her missing. Ruby was nursing six puppies, and tragically, all the pups died because she wasn’t there to care for them. We searched everywhere with no luck. Our friends, devastated, texted the same neighbor to ask if he’d seen Ruby. He didn’t respond at first. The next day, when asked directly if he had shot their dog, the neighbor finally admitted he had. He claimed Ruby had killed his pit bull, sending a photo of a freshly killed dog with its throat ripped out.
Our friends were shocked. Ruby had never shown aggression, and the wound didn’t seem consistent with what a Great Pyrenees would do. Their daughter, who works at a vet’s office, sent the photo to her boss. The vet believed the wound looked more like an attack from a spurred dog or one trained to fight, not Ruby. Plus, Ruby had been missing for three days, and the pit bull in the photo didn’t appear to have been dead that long.
Our friends tried to involve the sheriff’s office, but were told it was a civil matter. Fortunately, they contacted animal control, who confirmed that it was a criminal matter since these were working dogs and the state of New Mexico has free-roam laws. You can only shoot an animal if it’s actively causing harm, and it must be done humanely. Today, we’re waiting to see if the state police will get involved, as animal control says they should.
This same neighbor has shot his gun on other occasions, including once when we were walking down our driveway. Was it directed at us? We don’t know for sure. On one occasion, another neighbor reported the gunfire, and when the sheriff arrived, we told him we’d heard it too. Brent even yelled, “You missed us,” and the neighbor shot again. Yet, nothing was done—no investigation, no follow-up.
Now, with the sheriff’s office and state police seemingly unwilling to help or investigate these serious incidents, we are left wondering just how far this individual is willing to go. Is this a warning sign of more dangerous behavior to come? Why won’t the authorities step in before it’s too late?
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Ka-Hoon Campground and Event Center 