UXBRIDGE -- Last Thursday, two Golden Retrievers owned by Helen and John Jenkins went missing from their property.

And it was the last time the Uxbridge residents would ever see the dogs -- Casey, aged four, and Sunny, 18 months -- alive.

The Jenkins family received word on Saturday morning, Oct. 20, from the local animal control shelter (in Scugog) that their retrievers had been shot dead after they wandered onto a farmer’s property.

And now they want answers, said Ms. Jenkins, and are demanding a report from the animal centre. Under the livestock act, a farmer can shoot a dog if it’s loose and threatening a farmer’s livestock. “I want to see what my dogs supposedly did,” she said, adding on Monday morning, Oct. 22, the police and a lawyer will be approached. “We want to do everything by the book.”

What she doesn’t understand, Ms. Jenkins said, is why the farmer, who has not been identified, would shoot first and ask questions later. “If you can call to say the dogs were dead, why not call before (to say there are dogs on your property)?” she asked.

The Jenkins family lives on a 12-acre property on Webb Road, and animals have wandered onto its property as well, explained Ms. Jenkins. “We phone or drive (the animals) back” to the owners, she said, noting dogs have identification collar tags.

Casey and Sunny have since been returned to the family home, and have been buried, she said. But it’s not over, Ms. Jenkins vowed.

As of 11:30 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 22, the Uxbridge-Scugog animal control centre had not responded to a call from the Times-Journal on the matter.