Champion Crufts dog dies after being 'SHOT four times by gunman hiding in woods'

A CRUFTS-winning dog has been shot dead in Belgium - just weeks after another prize pedigree was poisoned in the same country.

An image of the dog killed in BelgiumKynoweb

The dog was a Rhodesian Ridgeback said to be one competition away from becoming a UK champion

The three-year-old Rhodesian Ridgeback was being walked by his owner in woods when he was shot four times in an apparently deliberate act.

According to the dog’s owner, ‘Mak’ panicked and ran off after being hit in the face with the first bullet. 

The champion-breed was later found in a pool of blood, with three more bullets having severed the dog’s spinal chord.

Owner and breeder Dorothy McGoldrick said the dog was wearing a bright blue collar and would have been easily identifiable through a rifle’s telescopic lens. 

“I believe he was gunned down deliberately,” she said. “No one could have mistaken him for a deer.”

Ms McGoldrick added that police believed the shots were fired from a distance of no more than 100m. 

Rhodesian RidgebackVertommen

The dog was a top breeding stud in Europe

He was gunned down deliberately; the only question is why. It’s absolutely horrible

Dorothy McGoldrick, dog's owner

Although marksmen hunt deer in those woods, it is thought the perpetrator was a poacher or random gunman.

“The first shot caused a flesh wound to his lip, but the next ones completely destroyed the vertebrae, severing the spinal cord - he would have died instantly,” the owner said. 

Mak’s body was taken to Liege University for a post-mortem examination and bullet fragments were removed.

Ms Goldrick added: “This cannot be thought of as an accident. He was gunned down deliberately; the only question is why. It’s absolutely horrible.”

Rhodesian RidgebackGETTY

Owner and breeder Dorothy McGoldrick pictured with the dog at Crufts

Mak is not the only dog to have been targeted in Belgium in recent weeks.

An award-winning Irish setter named Jagger was poisoned there last month after eating beef laced with a toxic chemical banned in Europe.

Suspicions that the pedigree was poisoned while competing at Crufts in Birmingham were later dismissed after a toxicology report ruled that it was "improbable" the tampering had happened at the dog show.

The latest victim was a top breeding stud in Europe and had been just one competition away from becoming a UK champion. 

“At the end of the day was just our dog – he was wonderful, as sweet as anything with a temperament to die for,” Mak's owner said.

The dog's Co-owner, Sam PannemannsVertommen

Co-owner Sam Pannemanns, at the site of the shooting; the wood was regularly used to walk Mak

Ms Goldrick now plans to petition the government, arguing that Belgium’s hunting laws endanger not just dogs but people, too.

“It could happen to anyone – a child – and it’s time the Government was approached to do something,” she said.

“Belgium is a well-populated country and there are potential dangers.

“Now everything has fallen to pieces but it is Mak, our dog, we miss the most. We don’t care about his showing success and I’d give everything he won away just to have him back again.

“I still have his mum and dad so maybe we can try again with this line and see if we can get something similar to Mak. I hope so.”

Crufts Judge On Poisoning Allegations- 'We Don't Harm Dogs'

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