Shocking police bodycam footage shows the moment an Arizona deputy shot and killed seven stray dogs. Despite many local residents being horrified by the fatal police shooting, the sheriff’s office has defended the officers’ actions, saying they acted in a “professional and most humane manner” given the circumstances.
Residents complained about an abandoned dog on their property in Adamana, Arizona, an unincorporated community about 100 miles east of Flagstaff, which neighbors said was attacking livestock.
Deputy Jarrod Toadechieny of the Apache County Sheriff’s Office, who responded to the scene, wrote in his incident report that the dogs belonged to a divorcing couple who had abandoned the property.
Deputy Sheriff Toadecheney visited the ruins on September 22, 2023.
Police body camera footage shows seven emaciated and dehydrated dogs, who do not appear to be aggressive towards the officers.
Officers lure the hungry dogs into a fenced area with food and water, where the dogs devour the food with gusto.
The initial body camera footage Mountain Daily Star The deputy is seen leaving a fenced-in area and putting on headphones.
Toadette Cheney can be heard saying, “Oh, God, this is the worst.”
As the dogs approached the officers, wagging their tails, officers began shooting at them one by one, and Officer Toadechiene shot the dog two more times as it continued to move.
Two of the abandoned dogs escaped and hid under a shed before being taken to a local animal shelter, where one died of parvovirus shortly after arriving, while the other was adopted.
Body camera footage shows officers dragging the dead dogs to their truck, where they then dumped them near the train tracks, according to the incident report.
You can watch the horrific video here here.
“The deputy sheriff involved acted in a professional and most humane manner considering the circumstances.”
The Apache County Sheriff’s Office defended Deputy Toadette Cheney’s actions, saying: KSAZ TV:
“The deputy involved acted professionally and in the most humane manner given the circumstances. He exhausted all other options available to him at the time and acted with the approval of his immediate supervisor. This incident was investigated by ACSO’s command staff, which found that the deputy acted within agency policy.”
The sheriff’s office explained that Apache County is over 11,000 square miles in size and does not have an animal protection or control department. The Apache County Sheriff’s Office said the county does not have the infrastructure or budget for an animal control department, so it relies on a “handful of deputies” to “make split-second life-or-death decisions and handle every situation they are faced with professionally and within the bounds of the law.”
“Animals are dying all over the county.”
But not everyone in Apache County agrees with the decision to shoot and kill the seven abandoned dogs.
“We’re not just talking about animals,” said Theresa Schumann, founder of the nonprofit Northern Arizona Animal Search and Rescue. The Washington Post“The Apache County Sheriff’s Office is not doing anything to solve the problem. Animals are dying all over the county.”
“They say we can’t afford animal rescue, but unfortunately I don’t believe that. There are lots of people out there who want to help,” Schumann added.
Schumann said she had been contacted by sheriff’s deputies to take in the dogs before the fatal incident, but she had no space available at her facility and was unable to find owners to take the dogs. The deputy allegedly told Schumann he would “deal with it.”
Toadechiney said in his report that Shuman told him that if the dog was aggressive, it may need to be euthanized.
Schumann said. South Korea“I told him that if the dogs were feral, he would have to find someone to take care of these dogs. I told him it would be a big challenge, but I never said they had to be shot.”
But Shuman said if he had known the animals were going to be shot, he would have intervened.
As The Blaze News reported last month, shocking police body camera footage was released that shows an officer shooting and killing a “non-aggressive” 13-pound dog that was deaf and blind.
Do you like Blaze News? Bypass censorship and sign up for our newsletter to get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up here!
