By Shavonne Potts
Salisbury Post
Melanee McKale just wanted to give the small Chihuahua and Lhasa apso mix she named Chewee a chance at life.
McKale, of China Grove, rescued Chewee from a South Carolina home that was already overrun with other dogs.
On Monday, authorities say, neighbor Terry Lynn Shawnfield killed the 2-year-old dog with a blast from a .12-gauge shotgun.
Shawnfield, 46, of 2172 Old Beatty Ford Road, China Grove, is charged with a felony count of cruelty to animals.
He’s also charged with two counts of assault by pointing a gun and one count of communicating threats.
The Rowan County Sheriff’s Office filed the charges against Shawnfield, who has since been released from the Rowan County Detention Center.
McKale said she’d been visiting with the parents of her boyfriend, Mark Propst, on Monday when they all heard gunshots.
McKale walked out of her house, she said, and saw Shawnfield approaching. She asked him if he was shooting.
“He said ‘I just shot your f—ing dog,’ ” McKale said.
She said a confrontation ensued between her and Shawnfield. They exchanged words, then “He stepped back like he was leaving,” she said.
But Shawnfield didn’t leave. Instead, McKale said, he pointed his shotgun at her.
“I was scared,” she said. “I didn’t know what he was going to do.”
McKale said she slowly backed away and left to find her dog. When she found Chewee, he was bleeding from the leg area.
“He was a good dog,” she said.
The dog went everywhere with McKale. She’s a truck driver and he went to work with her. He went shopping with her and, if she went for coffee at Starbucks, the dog waited outside for her to return.
McKale said that to her understanding, Shawnfield, who is her boyfriend’s stepbrother, was going to hunt on her property.
“He’d been told many times to not hunt on our property,” she said.
Chewee, along with her other dogs began barking. Shawnfield told her that Chewee then bit him, so he shot the dog.
According to McKale, Shawnfield had no bite marks.
Propst returned home to find Shawnfield confronting his girlfriend.
“He started walking towards me,” McKale said of Shawnfield. “Mark put his hand on his chest and tried to stop him. Terry pointed the gun at him.”
Chewee was one of six in a litter that McKale rescued. She has seven other dogs.
She said she’s never had problems like this with Shawnfield before.
Shawnfield has no telephone number listed.Contact Shavonne Potts at 704-797-4253 or spotts@salisburypost.com.