Off-duty Indiana cop says he shot neighbor's dog to protect chickens

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, Ind. -- An off-duty cop is defending his actions after he shot his neighbor's dog four times to protect his chickens in rural Porter County.

"We thought she was going to die for sure, I thought she was gone," the dog's owners said.

Jason Casbon says he was on his property in Washington Township protecting his livestock.

"His neighbor came over, because the dogs had just killed four of his chickens, to warn me because my chickens were out in the yard," Casbon said.

Casbon, a Porter town police officer, says he fired a .22 rifle from 5 to 10 yards away.

"The dog aggressively came at me, barking and growling and I was forced to shoot it," Casbon said.

"In a situation like that, the first thing to do is to call animal control," dog owner Cliff Malings said.

Cliff and his girlfriend Kathy are 1,000 miles away in Texas. Last week, Cliff got a frantic call from his house sitter that Loki was shot.

"It looked like she took two in the chest, one the back of her lungs towards her abdomen," Malings said.

He said they're communicating with family and vets on social media until they can get home.

"That's why we think she's recovering so rapidly - because of all the love and affection she's getting," Konke said.

Cliff and Kathy admit Loki and her brother Bacchus are a handful. They said they've have escaped from the yard and wandered away before, but they say they've never been aggressive.

"I'm sorry it had to come to this and I even offered to help them fix their fence so their dogs couldn't get out. I didn't want it to come to this and it's the last thing I wanted to do," Casbon said.

Casbon said the Porter County Sheriff's Dept. is conducting an investigation and will let him know if further action will be taken.