BATON ROUGE — A couple is pleading for answers after they say their dog was shot and killed in their own yard along Iris Street on Sunday night.

Adrian Smith and Jimmy Pickle say they found their Pitbull-Bully mix in their front yard, lying on its left side with a bullet through its head.

"I don't understand how somebody, so heartless, could do something like this," Smith said.

Smith says she was in her backyard, while her three dogs were running around the front, when she heard a gunshot.

"We did not respond right away because we hear that all the time around here. It was not a big boom, but it sounded more like a firecracker," she said.

But when she went to investigate, she realized it was much worse.

"When I seen him over there in the yard in the corner, I realized that the gunshot was somebody shooting my baby," Smith said.

Paula Shaw lives across the street from Smith. She says she has been working in animal welfare for more than 15 years.

"I took him to where I work, and we did an X-ray to see if we could find, you know, the bullets, and there was an entry and an exit wound, so after that we sent him to be cremated, so he could come back and be with his family," she said.

Now, they are all searching to find out who could have done this to a dog that was in its own yard.

"I can understand if he jumped the fence and was chasing them down the road, that's one thing to defend yourself, cause yeah nobody wants to get bit. My dogs they never bit nobody," Pickle said.

A reward is being offered for any information that can help lead to identifying the person who is responsible.

"If they will do this to an animal in cold blood in their own yard, what are they doing in their life to people and when nobody is looking," Shaw said.

Baton Rouge police say the shooting is under investigation for cruelty to animals.