Body camera footage captures the heartbreaking moment a Georgia police officer fatally shot HeeHaw, a beloved 1-year-old donkey.
The Cedartown Police Department released the footage showing HeeHaw—who stood barely waist-high to the officers—approaching them as they searched a field for a missing 12-year-old girl.
“Firearm discharged at a donkey. It was trying to attack us on a pasture,” Officer Trenton Garner told dispatch in the video.
The footage shows HeeHaw slowly walking toward the officers with his ears raised as they moved through Elsberry Riding and Farm ranch in Rockmart, Georgia, at about 12:45 a.m. on Oct. 4.
HeeHaw approached one officer, who quickly deployed a Taser. The device failed, according to Garner’s incident report.
Garner then fired a Glock 17 at HeeHaw from approximately 10 yards away.
The injured donkey ran from the area before collapsing. He was later found dead from the gunshot wound.
In his report, Garner said a Cedartown officer, a K-9 handler and a bloodhound team searching for the girl had been able to scare away horses on the property. He said HeeHaw was the only animal that allegedly charged at them.
Hannah Israel, HeeHaw’s owner, mourned the loss of the bottle-raised yearling and disputed the officer’s description of what happened.
“HeeHaw thought people were his family, and HeeHaw was family,” Israel told WSBTV.
“Cops entered my pasture searching for a missing person WITHOUT permission or warning and shot and killed my bottle raised BABY donkey,” Israel wrote online Sunday, adding that she planned to pursue legal action.
“We are heartbroken. He was my SON!!” she wrote.
Israel operates Elsberry Riding and Farm ranch, where HeeHaw was part of the petting zoo.
Garner has been placed on administrative leave.
The Georgia Department of Agriculture is investigating the shooting.
Neither Israel nor the Cedartown Police Department could be reached for comment.