Following her dog’s sudden and unfortunate death, actress Salma Hayek posted a last photo to Instagram of 9-year-old Mozart. She writes, “I haven’t posted for a week as I been [sic] mourning the death of my dog. […] He was found dead in my ranch last Friday with a shot close to his heart.”
Hayek was not home when the news was reported. The groundskeeper found Mozart’s body after he ran off during a walk with another of the family’s dogs. The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office later spoke with a neighbor who admitted shooting the dog, but did not intentionally try to kill him.
The neighbors wife Kim Lund tells Oregon Live:
I’m still coming to terms with all of this, as you can imagine. We didn’t even know we killed a dog. To find out we killed a dog that belonged to a high profile person, I’m in shock.
She informed police that while she and her husband were watching TV, they heard noises in their garage and found Mozart fighting with their own German Shepherds. Her husband shot at him with a pellet gun to scare him away. The necropsy concluded that the pellet hit an artery between the ribs, and Mozart bled out after finally making it back to the Hayek’s property.
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Sheriff John Snaza said at a press conference Monday:
At this time we do not see any criminal violation. We believe that the homeowner was only protecting his animals and not trying to purposely kill or maim a dog.
Deputy Lt. Cliff Ziesemer says the result of such a shot is a “fluke” and would not typically be fatal. “My heart is broken,” says Lund. “I’m really sorry that [Mozart] died.”
