Woman hopes man she says shot, killed her dog will face charges

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — A woman wants to see some sort of legal action taken after she says one of her neighbors shot and killed her dog while it was being attacked by another dog, but has not been charged with any crimes.

For years, Meghin Dysinger followed a daily ritual. She would wake up, sometimes even before the sun came up, to get in a some quality time with her Doberman, Ziva.  

“Every morning before work, I would take her out,” Dysinger said. “We would just walk outside, take a couple laps around the park”

Dysinger and her husband brought Ziva into their home nine years ago, when she was just an 8-week-old puppy.

“She was just the most relaxed and sweet animal with an unlimited capacity for love,” Dysinger said.

Ziva was truly the center of their world.

“She is a member of my family,” Dysinger said. “I don't have children. I can't have children. And so raising that dog has been the closest I have to a child.”

Back on Sept. 17, Dysinger began her day no different than she had hundreds of times before.  

“I took her out just like normal, got her leashed,” Dysinger said.

She and Ziva were only a few yards in to their daily walk, passing some kids waiting for a school bus, when a neighbor’s pit bull managed to get loose from its yard, running straight for Ziva.

“The pit bull ran out, grabbed my dog,” Dysinger said.

Within seconds, the pit bull had Ziva by her neck.

Dysinger and the pit bull’s owner tried all they could to separate them.

“I'm yelling, ‘get your dog off my dog,’’ she said. “And we're trying to do it.”

She said that’s when another neighbor walked up, with a gun in his hand.  

“I'm focused on the dog, I don't see him until he's right next to us,” she said. “His gun is already out and just in his hands. He has it drawn.”

What happened next still feels like a blur.

“And then he said, ‘I can't get a clear shot,’ and motioned for us to move away from the dogs,” Dysinger said. “And I begged him not to shoot my dog. And I heard the gunshot and my ears ring and I turned away and he shot two more times.”

Dysinger said the bullets missed the pit bull that was attacking Ziva, instead going right into Ziva’s body.

“And the dogs separated and my dog ran down and collapsed,” Dysinger said. “And then I held her side and I watched her struggle to breathe. And she died right there while I was trying to hold her… She just she died on the street. I couldn't even… I dialed the emergency vet, but she was gone before I made it through their answering line.”

Oklahoma City Police showed up.

"They took photos of my dog and they took photos at the time I had been holding her, trying to hold her side,” Dysinger said. “And at some point I laid my head on her, so they took pictures of my face because it was covered in her blood."

She said officers questioned the man who fired the gun.

"They didn't arrest him, they talked to him,” she said. “He admitted to shooting my dog."

Nearly two weeks have passed.

“And he hasn't faced any repercussions,” Dysinger said.

She says she called Oklahoma City Police who told her the man wouldn’t be charged and recommended she take civil action against him.

She says she then called the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office, who told her no decisions have been made yet, and while the man is not facing charges right now, he could be charged later.

Dysinger hopes charges will come sooner rather than later.  

“His life wasn't threatened, my life wasn't threatened, no one else's life was threatened,” she said. “I don't know why they thought a firearm was the appropriate way to break up a fight.”

For now, Dysinger is in therapy as she tries to unpack all the emotions of that day. But that’s hard without closure.

“It feels like nothing's being done,” she said. “Like my dog is just acceptable collateral damage.”

And it’s even harder without the love of her closest companion.

“It feels unreal sometimes… that it happened, like a nightmare,” Dysinger said. “But, you know, my dog's still not here.”