From “reason.com”
The donkey’s owner says officers wandered onto her property without permission and shot the small donkey because they felt threatened.
Police officers in Polk County, Georgia, shot and killed a small pet donkey on Sunday. Now the animal’s distraught owner is vowing legal action, and one officer has reportedly been placed on leave.
Elsberry Riding and Farm, a business in Rockmart, Georgia, that offers pony rides and petting zoos, wrote in a Facebook post Sunday that police officers entered the property early Sunday morning, where they encountered the farm’s donkey, HeeHaw.
At 12:45am cops entered my pasture searching for a missing person WITHOUT permission or warning and shot and killed my bottle raised BABY donkey.
They claimed he ran up to them braying and they thought they were in danger and shot and killed him after trying to taze him.
HeeHaw was raised in the house and did petting zoos he never knew a stranger. And was shot and killed in his OWN pasture for doing what donkeys do. Alerting to a stranger. There is no way this is legal! I will be taking legal action.
Local news outlet Fox 5 Atlanta reports that Cedartown Police Chief Jamie Newsome said the department has launched an investigation into the shooting and placed an unidentified officer on administrative leave. None of the officers involved have been named.
Hannah Israel, HeeHaw’s owner, has launched a GoFundMe page to raise money to hire a lawyer so she can pursue legal action over the incident.
Reason has covered stories of police officers needlessly shooting dogs for years, an unfortunately common phenomenon that has led to huge lawsuit payouts and viral news stories. Officers are rarely trained how to read dog behavior or handle aggressive dogs with non-lethal methods. But shooting a pet donkey is a new one, even to our jaded eyes.
The Polk County Police Department and Cedartown Police Departments did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
10/10/26 Update-
HeeHaw Bodycam Released | UPDATE
From “The Civil Rights Lawyer”
A police officer (Trenton Garner) in (Cedartown) Georgia shot and killed HeeHaw, the one-year-old mini donkey, who lived at a children’s petting zoo in Cedartown, Georgia. A federal civil rights lawsuit has already been filed. I already interviewed HeeHaw’s lawyers, Solomon Radner and Chris McCormick a few weeks ago. Now, the bodycam has finally been released, and it’s bad…