Lara Mickey left her two dogs at home on Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, and went to a high school football game. Roxie was a boxer. Luna was a husky. Both had just turned two. Mickey told KDKA that she and her boyfriend did not realize the dogs had broken away from the property until they got home around 10 p.m. "We kind of walked the wood lines and called for them," she said. "I was worried they were in the woods."

They were not in the woods. According to a criminal complaint described by KDKA, police had responded that day to a report of two dogs abandoned and tied to a pole at the Fort Mason Village Housing in Masontown, and Masontown's contracted animal control officer was contacted that night.

Police say the officer tried to scan the dogs for microchips and could not, telling them the reader's battery was dying. The complaint says police later located the dogs' chips between their shoulder blades and found them active. "Both dogs were microchipped," Mickey said. The complaint also states, according to KDKA, that one dog was hesitant and fearful of the other, but that neither was trying to "charge, attack, or pursue" the officer.

Pennsylvania law requires that a stray dog be held 48 hours before euthanasia unless it is severely injured and a veterinarian consents, KDKA reported; a microchipped dog is to be held 10 days. Police say the officer acknowledged he was not a licensed kennel, and allege he took the dogs to his home instead. Police say he shot both dogs to death on the afternoon of Sept. 6 — fewer than 24 hours after they were first seized. Asked whether he intended to shoot the dogs to euthanize them, police say he replied, according to the complaint, "Well what am I going to do with them?" and added, "You ain't going to save every damn one."

"Incredibly cruel," Mickey told KDKA. "They just turned two and they were shot point-blank." She said the family had chipped the dogs precisely so this could not happen: "There should have been time to get our dogs back. We tried all the routes." Of Roxie and Luna, she said: "They weren't worthless, they were worth everything to us."

Only one news organisation, KDKA/CBS News Pittsburgh, has reported this case; no independent account was located, and for that reason this record does not name the officer. Every allegation above is the account of police and the criminal complaint as described by that outlet.

The officer faces two counts each of aggravated cruelty to an animal, cruelty to an animal, and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, plus one count of obstructing the administration of law or another government function. Charges are allegations; the case was reported as pending. KDKA reported his Masontown contract was terminated, but that he still held contracts with Perryopolis and Everson and was listed as the animal control officer for more than a dozen municipalities across three counties — with most terminations requiring a council vote, and one borough official saying he planned to retire in December anyway. Animal control officers in Pennsylvania are contracted by individual municipalities, KDKA reported, and no state agency oversees them. KDKA said it contacted the Borough of Masontown's solicitor's office and did not hear back by airtime.