The tragic shooting that claimed the lives of Minnesota state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband early Saturday grew even more heartbreaking this week. The family’s golden retriever, Gilbert, was also shot when the alleged murderer, Vance Luther Boelter, opened fire inside their Brooklyn Park home.
Unable to survive his injuries, Gilbert was euthanized on Monday.
It takes a special kind of evil to shoot a golden retriever. It’s hard to fathom how anyone could harm such an innocent, loving creature. Then again, if someone has the capacity to kill a person, perhaps shooting a dog means nothing to them.
Still, it adds another chilling layer to the brutality of the attack and underscores the pure malice behind the violence that shattered the Hortman home.
Minnesota House Rep. Erin Koegel, a colleague and friend to Melissa Hortman, wrote about Gilbert’s death in a social media post: “Her children had to put him down after learning their parents had been murdered. Gilbert wasn’t going to survive. Melissa loved that dog. She trained him as a service dog. He flunked out of school and she was so happy he failed so he could stay! She needed him in heaven with her.”
Gilbert was clearly known — and loved — by Hortman’s other House colleagues as well. According to Koegel, during a safety meeting after the shootings, the House sergeant-at-arms told members that Gilbert had to be put down.
Fox News reported that the Hortmans’ adult children issued a statement on Monday night saying, “one way to keep their parent’s memory alive would be to: ‘Pet a dog. A golden retriever is ideal, but any will do.'”
The Minnesota Star Tribune also reported the news of Gilbert’s death. The article was titled “Gilbert, the Hortmans’ golden retriever, was ‘too happy-go-lucky’ to be a service dog.”
The report said that the Hortmans were involved with Helping Paws, a non-profit dog rescue in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Hortman volunteered to foster Gilbert as she trained him to be a service dog. According to the Star Tribune:
Gilbert, the four-year-old golden retriever trained by Rep. Melissa Hortman to be a service dog, was too friendly for a working dog’s life. So, he became the family pet, much to Hortman’s delight.”A lot of dogs just want to be around people — all people — a wonderful trait that Gilbert shared, but a less desirable attribute in service dogs, who need to focus on one person,” said Alyssa Golob, executive director of the nonprofit Helping Paws, which trains and places service animals with the help of volunteers like the Hortmans.
While I love all dogs, there are no dogs quite like goldens. Their joyful spirits are infectious. [Most of my dogs have been goldens!]
And Gilbert sounds like a gem. God bless him.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on LinkedIn or X.
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