Police investigating after Salma Hayek's dog found dead

YELM, Wash. -- Washington state authorities are investigating after actress Salma Hayek's dog was found shot to death on her ranch about 70 miles south of Seattle.

A Thurston County Sheriff's spokesman says a deputy received a report on Feb. 19, has talked to the actress and is investigating.

Deputy Lt. Cliff Ziesemer says a caretaker was riding a horse around Hayek's property with two dogs following. He says the dogs barked and took off running at the end of the road but eventually came back, as was typical.

Later, when the caretaker returned home she realized one dog was missing. She found the dog dead and reported it to authorities.

Ziesemer says a veterinarian determined a pellet from a pellet gun had nicked an artery and that the dog "slowly bled to death internally."

Hayek posted on Instagram Friday that she was mourning the death of her 9-year-old dog named Mozart.

"I haven't posted for a week as I been mourning the death of my dog, Mozart who I personally delivered out of his mother's womb," Hayek wrote on Instagram. "He was found dead in my ranch last Friday with a shot close to his heart."

She added that she hopes Washington state authorities find justice for the dog, who she said in nine years, never bit or attacked anyone.