Wilkes sheriff deputies have arrested a Ronda man on a charge of animal cruelty after he and his girlfriend were seen by multiple people out shooting Saturday, and one of the bullets hit a cow. 37-year old Eric Douglas Byrd was arrested several hours after the report of the injured cow, which was hit in the leg by a 9-mm slug from a pistol allegedly fired by Byrd from the driveway just outside a pasture belonging to James Johnson on Roaring River Ruritan Club Road. The bullet shattered the cow's leg, and Johnson had to put down the animal. A sheriff deputy recovered sixteen bullet casings from the driveway. Glen Johnson, who lives across the road from where the cow was shot, also told the deputy he'd seen Byrd and his girlfriend, 38-year old Tammy Gregory, in the driveway and that he'd seen Byrd fire the shot that injured the cow. It took some time for deputies to locate the home where Byrd and Gregory were staying. During that time, a deputy running a background check found that Byrd has a felony conviction, and is not supposed to possess a gun.

When deputies went to the house in Ronda, they had to knock for some time before Gregory came to the door. She told them Byrd was sleeping, and they followed her to the bedroom to awaken him. On the way, they seized a pistol that was in the house, which was later found to have several rounds matching the brands and caliber of the casings found in the driveway. Byrd was arrested without incident and charged with animal cruelty and firearms possession after a felony conviction. Johnson reports the cow he had to put down was worth about one-thousand dollars.