The article states that the dog was wearing a brightly colored harness, and was easily 2x the size of local the coyote breeds that the hunter mistakenly identified the dog as. An ATF agent can’t distinguish between a large domestic dog and a coyote? Coyotes are so disheveled looking and have such a distinct way of skulking around, it’s hard to see how this happened.

The hunters did stick around and help once the dog was shot at least. I hope both sides learned something from this. I’d be absolutely devastated if my dog got shot in front of me, I can’t imagine.