ELDRED TOWNSHIP, Pa. — The doghouse on Patrice Jiunta's property in Eldred Township, near Kunkletown, serves as a reminder that her beloved husky named Jak is never coming home.
"He's not here. He's gone. He's the love of our life. He was just 3, and he was getting better every day," said Jiunta.
Jiunta says she woke up to two gunshots around 2 a.m. on December 30. When she came downstairs, she discovered Jak had gotten out. She went down to the stream just beyond the backyard of her property, where she thought she heard the shots.
She said two men were standing there and told her they were hunting coyotes.
"I just kept saying, 'Where is he,' and then I could hear him moaning," Jiunta said. "So with that, I tore through the brush, I had my nightgown on, and I picked him up. He was a husky. He was big."
As Jiunta was getting Jak, the two hunters took off, leaving her and Jak by themselves.
The family took the husky to the vet, but it was too late.
"We buried him out back; I have to make a sign for him yet," Jiunta said. "You know I just wiped his paw prints off the floor today because, like, I couldn't, but then it's like too hard to see them."
The family wants justice for Jak, and they're offering a $500 reward for anyone with information.
"I would like to see them held accountable. If they have hunting licenses, which I doubt maybe they do, stripped away, punished, you know. Whatever the statute of the law is," said Jiunta.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission is investigating the shooting. Its rules say people are allowed to hunt coyotes day or night, and there is no set season for them. But you do have to have a license.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Game Commission or Patrice Jiunta at (610) 573-6842.
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