Taylor Brogden recounts what happened late Saturday night when her dog Max was shot in her neighbor's yard.

A vet at a local animal hospital had to put down the 60-pound mixed breed because it was hurt too badly.

"This is where I jumped the fence and I ran, and Max was laying on the other side of those two trees," Brogden said. "And he was like laying right where the fence is, and he had blood all over his back legs and everything."

Police were called to the home in the 2900 block of San Pablo Road near Beach Boulevard about 11:30 p.m. Saturday. They didn't charge the man who shot Max because he claimed the shooting was in self-defense.

That man, Eric Thomas, talked Monday about what he said happened.

"I was confronted by a dog chasing my cat, and it left the cat and charged me on the porch," Thomas said. "It charged me in a ferocious manner, and I fired twice."

Thomas, who's a dog owner himself, said he heard the commotion, so he went out on his porch with his shotgun. Within seconds, he said, his life was in danger.

"I don't feel good about having to shoot the dog," Thomas said.

The dog's owners, who only heard the shooting but didn't see it, say Max has never been an aggressive dog. And X-rays show he was shot from behind, as if he were running away from Thomas not toward him, as he said.

"He shouldn't have had to go like that. He just didn't deserve that at all," Robert Brogden said. "I'm going to hold my tongue, but I want to see justice. He was shot for no reason."

Channel 4 crime and safety analyst Ken Jefferson said shooting a dog could bring animal cruelty charges, but in this case, officers didn't have any proof to show whether or not the dog was shot unnecessarily, so Thomas likely won't be charged.

"You have to question, was the animal actually charging this individual or was he going away," Jefferson said. "But outside of that, there's really nothing to examine because you have no third party or independent witnesses."

Max's owners say they're considering filing a lawsuit against the man who shot the dog. Thomas said he's not worried because he knows he did nothing wrong.