Bodycam footage of a Georgia police officer gunning down an 1-year-old donkey named HeeHaw shows the heartbreaking moment the beloved animal is killed.
Cedartown Police Department released the shocking footage of HeeHaw — who was barely waist-high on the officers — getting shot as it trotted inquisitively to the cops who were in a field searching for a missing 12-year-old girl.
“Firearm discharged at a donkey. It was trying to attack us on a pasture,” Officer Trenton Garner could be heard telling dispatch in the video.
Footage showed HeeHaw walking slowly with his ears up towards the officers, who were carrying flashlights as they passed through Elsberry Riding and Farm ranch in Rockmart, Ga., at around 12:45 a.m. on Oct. 4.
HeeHaw ambled towards one officer who quickly deployed a Taser, which failed, Garner said in an incident report.
Then, from roughly 10 yards away, Officer Garner shot HeeHaw with a Glock 17.
The poor pet donkey then ran away, collapsed, and was later found dead from the gunshot wound.
Garner said in the incident report that a CPD officer, a K-9 handler, and a bloodhound team searching for the missing girl were able to scare off horses on the farm and that the donkey was the only animal that allegedly charged.
Owner Hannah Israel mourned the loss of her tiny yearling and pushed back on Garner’s account.
“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,” she wrote online Sunday, vowing to take legal action.
“We are heartbroken. He was my SON!!” she wrote.
Israel operates the Elsberry Riding and Farm ranch where HeeHaw was featured as part of the petting zoo.
Garner has been put on administrative leave.
The Georgia Department of Agriculture is investigating the incident.
Neither Israel nor the Cedartown Police Department could be reached for comment.
