If Mike Chedester wants to become the most hated man in America, he’s off to a good start after murdering two dogs while hunting in Belmont County, Ohio, on Monday. Chedester (who calls himself a hunter but we use that term loosely when describing him) was out hunting when two dogs without a leash came up to him and apparently annoyed him. So Mike did the thing that made the most sense in his warped mind – he shot and killed them both.
According to Chedester, it’s not killing the dogs that’s the issue, it’s that the owner of the dogs let them run around, practically ‘forcing’ him to kill them. It’s true the dogs owner shouldn’t have let the dogs run around without a leash, but I’m sure he didn’t think a psychopath would shoot them the first chance he got and then act as if what he did was some righteous act.
Pete Byers, the owner of the dogs, was preparing to leave on a work trip when his dogs managed to run off.
“I turned around to lock that gate. I turned around my dogs were gone,” Byers said. “And it’s the opening day of gun season so I’m like dying inside. I’m scared to death.”
Byers eventually asked others for help after an hour of searching.
After hearing from some hunters that they had heard gunshots and dogs yelping, he followed a trail that led to Chedester’s tree stand.
“I asked him, did you kill my dogs man, I want to know so I can bury them. Meanwhile he keeps eyeing this new brush pile. That’s new and fresh,” Byers said. “Then he kind of looks down his nose at me and says ‘yeah, I killed your dogs. You want me to buy you two new ones? I’ll buy you two new dogs.”
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“I asked him where are they and he looks at me like I’m confused and he points right there to my brush pile. And there’s Emmy’s paw, sticking out from the logs,” Byers said.
Byers called the authorities to the scene.
Prosecutors say Chedester will face two felony charges of prohibitions concerning companion animals. Each charge could land him in prison for 12 months if he’s convicted.
Byers posted the following message on Chedester’s Facebook:
“I would like to thank Mike Chedester of St. Clairsville, for murdering the only things in this world which I had left to love. I have had really tough time with life since Kat left me this July. Those dogs he killed where my best friends, my buddys , my foot warmers and my companions. I loved those dogs with all my heart. I don’t know how you didn’t hear me screaming for them from every hilltop in the valley, especially when you where 300 yards from one place I yelled. I think worst of all Mike, you kept their collars as a trophy.”
This isn’t the kind of guy I want to call a fellow hunter. Hunting is about survival, getting your own food and the sport of it. What Chedester did is nothing short of disgusting and shows he respects nothing or no one but himself.
