A Wolf Creek family was devastated Sunday when their beloved pet dog was shot with a .22-calibre firearm.

The dog had to be put down because the injury was so serious.

The father, who preferred to remain anonymous, told the Star Monday the 8 1/2-year-old Labrador retriever had been hanging around the shop where he and his sons were working early Sunday afternoon.

It couldn't have been gone long when his oldest son heard a howling noise outside.

A few minutes later, the dad was looking around and saw Lola limping back toward him and the shop, injured and in severe pain.

"I could see her leg was broken,” he said. "And then I could see the entry wound; blood was still coming out.

"She was in pretty heavy shock; she was shaking really badly and she was in a lot of pain.”

He called a friend who worked at a veterinary clinic and lives nearby.

Lola, needing immediate attention, arrived at the Alpine Veterinary Medical Centre at about 3 p.m.

X-rays showed the bullet, and where it hard shattered the large femur bone.

There were two options: fly her south for specialized surgery in an attempt to repair the leg with pins and so forth; or amputate the leg.

Neither provided any guarantees for the elderly Lab.

The father said he feels that putting the dog to sleep was the right decision, as tough as it was for him emotionally, and for his wife and kids waiting back at their Wolf Creek home.

The lifelong Yukoner recognizes some may say that having the dog tied up or in a fenced area would have prevented the tragedy.

The Wolf Creek country residential neighbourhood, he said, has been pretty casual when it comes to local dogs wandering about.

It's not been an issue, never has been, as far as he knows, he said.

If it had become one recently for some unknown reason, surely there are better ways of dealing with a local concern than shooting and wounding an animal, he said.

The dad said he and his sons canvassed the neighbours, but nobody they spoke with had heard or seen anything.

Whitehorse RCMP have opened a file on the shooting. It is illegal to discharge a firearm in city limits.

Later attempts to track where Lola had gone and where she was shot, were foiled by the afternoon's wind and snow.

Coincidentally, when the father was at the clinic Sunday, there was a couple from the Takhini Hot Springs Road visiting their dog.

Their pet had been shot the previous Friday, though the bullet had gone right through the animal and did not cause a fatal injury.

Scott Sabourin, acting manager of the Whitehorse bylaw department, said today officers have not heard of any other recent cases of domestic pets being shot.