A Thompson, Man. family says they’ll pay cash for information after their 9-month-old Great Dane puppy died after being attacked with a machete during a home invasion. The Mounties are investigating.

RCMP said officers were called to a home on Ash Street just after 1 p.m. Monday. Police said three males knocked on the door of a residence and asked to come inside, then forced their way in after the homeowner said they couldn’t.

“They started banging on the door, saying ‘Let us in, bro,’ and he wouldn’t, so they started kicking at the door,” said Robyn Shlachetka, whose husband was home with their 4-year-old daughter and a friend at the time. Shlachetka said her husband told her the males were determined and one appeared to be hiding something in his jacket.

“So he grabbed my daughter and ran out the back door, and in the meantime they had smashed the glass and unlocked the deadbolt and came through the door,” Shlachetka said.

Shlachetka said her dog Cojo, which at 9 months old already weighed 80 to 90 pounds, regularly barks and growls at people who seem unfamiliar and was likely attacked while trying to be protective.

“They had hacked him with a machete in his throat, and then on his back as well,” she said.

Shlachetka said after that Cojo and her other dog, an older Great Dane, ran out the back door.

RCMP said the injured dog was found in the backyard.

“He went down and hid under the deck. That’s why it took so long to get him to the vet, he was hiding under the deck. He was scared,” said Shlachetka said, adding that Cojo seemed stable at first but died later Monday night after being taken for veterinary care.

Shlachetka said she doesn’t know what prompted the home invasion.

“We have absolutely no clue,” she said, adding that a few small things, including a Playstation, were taken.

“I don’t think they were expecting anyone to be home. If they had waited five minutes, nobody would have been home.”

Police said all three suspects are described as being Indigenous, and one had a tear drop tattoo on his face.

One suspect is described as looking young, around six feet tall, 200 pounds and was wearing a grey toque with a red stripe, a grey jacket and winter boots.

The other two were dressed in dark clothing, police said.

RCMP ask anyone with information to call the Mounties at 204-677-6909 or submit an anonymous tip through Crime Stoppers.

Shlachetka says her family has also offered a reward for information, using $2,000 they would have put towards Cojo’s vet bills had he survived, in case someone in Thompson who knows something isn’t comfortable going to police.

“I just want to find out who killed him,” she said. “He was my puppy.”