YAKIMA -- A dog owner who found her 10-year-old dachshund mixed dog dead in the front yard and apparently slit open is offering a reward for any information that could lead directly to an arrest.

Yakima police are now investigating the dog's death as a intentional after a veterinarian reported that someone had in fact, killed the dog named "Peanut," and then removed its spleen.

"Actually, it feels like somebody cut part of my heart out," said Peanut's owner Debbie Zorrozua.

"This was her baby," Zorrozua's sister, Betty Maybee said. "My sister's never had her own children."

And that's why Zorrozua's even more determined to find out what happened to Peanut. But it may not be easy.

Investigators said they've never seen a case like this one in Yakima before.

"So it's a little bit of a mystery to me," said the dog's veterinarian Dr. Lutz Harfst. "I think someone sliced the animal open."

Even Peanut's vet says in his 25-year-career, this is a first for him. Dr. Harfst examined Peanut's body Wednesday, the day after she was found dead in Zorrozua's front yard.

"Never seen something like this," said Dr. Harfst, who explained that Peanut was already dead when someone sliced her open from sternum to hip, took out her spleen and stabbed her twice in the chest.

"What had been done to the body was done either after she was dead or completely knocked out," he said.

The doctor said the next step is to ship Peanut's body to Washington State University where doctors there will do more tests to see if Peanut was drugged before she was opened up.

Those results should come back early next week.

Even police didn't find any evidence Peanut's death was just an accident; maybe hit by a car, or attacked by another animal.

All signs point to Peanut being lured out of the back yard, knocked out then cut open.

"We're kind of in shock with the whole thing," said Yakima animal control officer Ben Zigan, who responded to the call on 85th Avenue Wednesday morning.

"She was just teeny tiny," said Zorrozua as she described how small Peanut was when she rescued the dog off the streets of Selah's a decade ago. "She was about one and a half pounds."

That's why the scenario of what happened to Peanut is one that the dog owner can hardly understand. She wants to know why anyone would want to harm the dog she loved like a child.

"It's kind of scary, because you think, who would do something like that, you know, what would do something like that," Harfst said.

"(I) feel like I've been violated," said Zorrozua. "Like there's a terrorist in my neighborhood."


***Zorrozua's friends and family say they want to find whoever did this and are offering a $1200 reward for any information leading directly to an arrest.

If you know or saw something suspicious Tuesday night around 85th Avenue, please call Rick at #509-961-8105.