(Independence, MO) -- An Independence woman woke up to a shocking sight this weekend after someone hung her dog from a tree.

Brenda Looney says that her one-year-old Jack Russell terrier normally slept inside, but it spent last Friday night outside because of the nice weather.

But when she woke up on Saturday morning, she says that she saw it hanging dead from a tree in her front yard.

"This had to be a very cold and disturbed individual," said Looney. "And to think this person lives around here among these kids, I don't even feel safe around here any more."

Independence police say they've talked to somebody in the case, but no arrests have been made. Looney says that she thinks it's somebody nearby who has a personal vendetta against her.

"She was banging on the door like the house was on fire, she said she was so sorry about my dog," says Looney.

It didn't take her long to find out what her neighbor meant. It's an image she says she'll never forget.

"He was a person. Not an animal."

The family says the little Jack Russell Terrier was as you'd expect full of energy. He was rescued from an abusive home.

Saturday morning, someone hanged Chico in a tree outside her eastern independence home.

"People will be saying 'what did she do?' I didn't do anything, what did he do? Bark to let you know someone was coming up," says Looney.

After police left, Brenda searched her neighborhood hoping someone might have seen something.

"This is just so cruel, all animal lovers out there have to be feeling how I'm feeling. He's been deprived of his life. This is awful."

Brenda says she prays for the person who did this to her little dog -- and prays too for Chico.

"You didn't take his life, you took part of my life. Part of it just left"


http://ozarksfirst.com/fulltext?nxd_id=322195