Dog survives toss off I-15 overpass

Haley Savage drove her 1-year-old boxer, Seven, home on Friday.

For the next four weeks she'll have to wad soft dog food into little balls and hand-feed Seven. The boxer won't be able to have any hard doggy treats or even a bone.

But considering the condition Seven was in just two days earlier, the dog is lucky to be going home at all.

Wednesday afternoon, someone threw Seven off the 3900 South overpass spanning I-15, a drop of more than 15 feet. The event was witnessed by several motorists who called 911. Some reported seeing a red SUV with either a rack or rails on top, according to the Utah Highway Patrol.

One man stopped his vehicle and got out onto the busy freeway to chase the dog. Other vehicles came to a halt as the man and Seven ran down the road.

"Here comes a dog cruising down the car pool lane and a man chasing after him," said Monique Latteier, an off-duty Salt Lake police emergency dispatcher and animal lover. "The dog just collapsed almost into the man's arms, she was so exhausted."

Seven was "bleeding all over" with her jaw hanging off to one side. Latteier said the man, in his late 20s to early 30s, should get credit for chasing after Seven. But she never got his name after offering to take the dog to the vet for him.

After Latteier got back into her car with Seven, she called some friends at UHP's dispatch center, and that's when she found out other motorists reported the dog had been thrown.

"I was horrified. I am such an animal lover. I can't even really comprehend anyone doing anything to such an animal. I was stunned," she said.

Savage was contacted and went straight to the vet's office.

"I was hysterical," she said.

Seven had blood filling her lungs, a broken rib and a mangled jaw that required the insertion of several pins. She also had four teeth removed and will have to have another surgery in about a month.

"Her jaw split in half. It fractured the whole jaw," Savage said. "It was pretty scary."

Despite the severity of Seven's condition, Savage said she was surprised it wasn't worse, considering what happened.

Savage, who left the door to her home cracked open so Seven could go in and out while she was at work, believes Seven either jumped over the fence surrounding her yard on her own or was coaxed to jump over it. She lives close to the area where Seven was tossed. At some point, Savage believes, someone lured Seven, whether it was before or after she got out of her yard, because at the vet's office she was throwing up a lot of shredded beef, something Savage said she never feeds Seven.