Arizona Deputy Shoots And Kills Abandoned Dogs In County Without Animal Control

[Sugar Cookie]

Deputy Toadecheenie NEEDS TO BE FIRED AND PROSECUTED IMMEDIATELY!

Animal advocates are raising concerns after body camera footage shows an Apache County Sheriff’s Deputy shooting and killing seven dogs at an abandoned property in Adamana, which is East of Holbrook, on Sept. 22, 2023.

Molly Ottman, Executive Editor and Journalist for the Mountain Daily Star, broke the story and shared the footage with Arizona’s Family.

In the video, a deputy is seen placing food and water inside a fenced enclosure. Seven dogs follow him inside.

Moments later, the deputy can be heard saying, “Oh God. This is gonna suck.”

He goes on to count the dogs and later shoots them. The deputy goes looking for two dogs that never got inside the enclosure but doesn’t get them.

The deputy later calls dispatch and says, “Seven dogs, dispatch. Two remain.”

Ashlyn Dighans, who lives near the property, said she watched the video. “I’m a pre-vet student of UofA, so it broke my heart,” she said.

Dighans said she had called the sheriff’s office last year out of concern for the dogs whose owners she said had left them to fend for themselves.

She explained that the owners had moved in in 2022 and needed help caring for the dogs. Dighans said she would feed them, but after her neighbors left, she wasn’t sure if she was legally allowed on the property.

“I didn’t feel comfortable feeding the dogs or watering the dogs until the sheriff’s officed deemed them abandoned. I didn’t know if I could get into any sort of trouble,” said Dighans.

According to the deputy’s report, he had checked out the property a couple of times in September after getting calls from neighbors about the dogs going after livestock and being left without food and water.

The deputy said he tried contacting the owners, with one of them telling him she was okay with the dogs being shot. Eventually, he was unable to contact her again or the the other owner, according to the paperwork.

The deputy stated in the report that he tried working with an animal shelter that was trying to help find a place for the dogs but wasn’t able to.

He stated he called a Sergeant to inform him of the situation and his plan to shoot the dogs due to their condition and no kennel availability. The deputy said the Sergeant agreed with the decision to shoot the dogs.

“Somebody should be held accountable for this event and what happened because it shouldn’t have happened,” said Dighans.

Dighans said the county doesn’t have animal control. She explained she and an animal rescue were able to rescue the two remaining dogs a month later. She said one is currently at a Flagstaff shelter, but the other one died after getting sick.

Arizona deputy shoots and kills abandoned dogs in county without animal control

Body-cam shows Apache County deputy shooting and killing seven dogs at an abandoned property in Adamana.

www.kold.com

warning

"The Deputy involved acted in a professional and most humane manner given the circumstances. He exhausted all other alternatives available to him at the time and acted under the approval of his immediate supervisor.

The incident was reviewed by ACSO Command Staff, and the Deputy was found to have acted within agency policy.

Apache County is a large county covering over 11,000 square miles, with only a handful of deputies to provide law enforcement and a variety of other services to the citizens of Apache County and the State of Arizona. The deputies are trained to act on their own, make split second life or death decisions and handle any situation they are confronted with in a professional manner within the law.

Apache County does not have an animal care and control department. In the unincorporated areas that responsibility is left up to the deputies and actions taken vary and are considered on a case-by-case basis. We do not have the infrastructure or budget to support such a department.

Approval for such a department would be made by the Board of Supervisors. We have had private agencies like the Arizona Humane Society offer to assist on cases in the past, but not on a consistent basis, mainly due to the remote response and availability of local resources."

'Acted within agency policy': Abandoned dogs shot, killed by Apache County Sheriff's deputy

What began as a welfare call to the Apache County Sheriff's Office to check on emaciated, dehydrated and abandoned dogs on a property in Adamana, an area outside of Holbrook, soon became the site of the mass killing.

www.fox10phoenix.com

“They were puppies. They were standing on their hind legs, tails wagging,” Schumann said. “[The deputy] went in there with food and water — they were not aggressive at all.”

“I was sick,” Schumann added. “It was horrible.”

The deputy was unable to corral two dogs who ran under a shed on the property. He whistles for them to come out, but they stay hidden.

As the deputy begins to haul the bodies of the seven dogs to the back of his marked Apache County Sheriff’s Office pickup, he realizes one is still alive. He shoots and kills it, then drives the dogs to another remote area and dumps their bodies near railroad tracks.


Ottman, reporter and executive editor at the Mountain Daily Star said she shared the body cam video — which took three months to get through a public records request — with 12News hoping the story would get more exposure and put pressure on Apache County officials to make changes.

'Can you take the dogs?' Apache County deputy shoots 7 dogs that were abandoned and the county had no place for them

Apache County has no animal control department and lots of abandoned dogs with no clear path forward.

www.12news.com

 

[Metalfan]

NO,we need to start shooting junkies and abusers.

 

[Crazy Cat Lady]

The people who abandoned these dogs should also be prosecuted.