An Arizona sheriff’s deputy shot and killed seven starving and abandoned dogs at a rural property in September after giving them water, shocking footage shows.
While the Apache County Sheriff’s Office argues the deputy did nothing wrong, the incident has outraged local animal rights groups that argue the area needs to address animal hoarding.
Body cam footage shows the deputy approach the group of starving dogs behind a chain-link fence where some are sleeping and others are barking and wagging their tails. He lays out food and water for the dogs. He then proceeds to shoot and kill seven of them, the video shows. An incident report states that he subsequently dumped the remains near railroad tracks.
“Oh God. This is gonna suck,” the deputy says as the dog’s follow him inside.
He then shoots seven dogs as two flee for their lives. The shooting was pre-planned, and the deputy had told a supervisor. The deputy - who works in a county that lacks an animal care and control department - said the dogs had to be down due to their condition and lack of kennel ability.
Apache County Chief Deputy Roscoe Herrera said deputies can handle animal issues as they deem necessary as the county has no animal control service, according to The Washington Post.
But animal advocates argue the shooting was not the right solution and that animal hoarding and abandonment need to be addressed in the area.
The founder of the nonprofit Northern Arizona Animal Search and Rescue, Teresa Schumann, told The Post, “The Apache County Sheriff’s Office won’t do anything to fix the problem.”
“Animals are dying everywhere in the county,” she added.
The footage was originally obtained by the Mountain Daily Star.
The deputy, Jarrod Toadecheenie, wrote in the incident report the dogs were owned by a couple who were getting divorced and who had abandoned the property, adding he visited the home on a number of occasions during the course of three weeks following neighbors’ complaints about the dogs going after the lifestock. They were also left without food and water.
During the initial visit, he counted 10 dogs, which seemed to be in “good health.” He was later called to the scene after the dogs chased a neighbor’s donkey.
Toadecheenie got in touch with Schumann, who said she was having a hard time locating new owners for the dogs when the deputy called saying that he would take care of the situation.
In his report, the deputy said Schumann told him that if the dogs were aggressive, they may have to be euthanized.
“I told him if the dogs were feral, we were going to have to try and find somebody that would be willing to work with these dogs,” Schumann told KPNX 12 News. “I said it takes a lot, but no, I never said they needed to be shot.”
Toadecheenie told his supervisor he planned on shooting the dogs. He bought dog food and a tray and got water from a fire station. He then went to the property, gathered the dogs using the food and water, and put on headphones before starting to shoot the dogs, according to the body cam footage.
Two of the dogs ran away unharmed, hiding under a shed, and were later taken to an animal shelter by Schumann. One died of a virus and the other was adopted.
According to the report, the deputy said he tried to contact the owners, with one saying it would be OK to shoot the dogs. He also said he tried to work with an animal shelter to find a home for the dogs, but one wasn’t available.
The deputy wrote in the incident report that the couple should be charged with animal cruelty.
Herrera told The Post, “This tragic decision was made under extremely difficult circumstances due to a combination of limited resources, the willful neglect and abandonment of the dogs by their original owners, and the considerable amount of time spent seeking assistance from outside resources.”
A spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office told KPNX 12 News earlier this month, “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.”
“Apache County does not have an animal care and control department,” the spokesperson added. “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.”
The humane society told The Post that “This awful incident lacked all compassion and judgment. And what is most clear is that establishing an animal care and control service in Apache County is an absolute necessity to prevent something like this from happening in the future.”
The Independent has contacted the sheriff’s office for comment.
