PETITION TARGET: Apache County Board of Supervisors
Seven helpless dogs were shot to death by a deputy in Arizona when they had no where else to go, according to Fox 10.
Neighbors requested welfare checks from the Apache County Sheriff’s Office because the dogs appeared to have been abandoned on a vacated property and looked emaciated and dehydrated. The dogs had reportedly resorted to hunting nearby livestock for food. They needed help.
Body cam footage shows a deputy on the premise opening a full bag of dog food and pouring it into a large container on the ground; the dogs leap over one another to begin devouring it. He then fills a dry, dirty bowl with water — which turns muddy in the dirt-crusted bowl.
But after he walks outside of the fenced-in area containing the dogs, he aims a handgun through the chainlink fence. A few of the dogs stand up at the fence, tails wagging and appearing hopeful, before he points the gun at them. The deputy then shoots every dog and puppy he sees until they are dead.
Some of the dogs were shot more than once, and could be heard crying out in agony as they slowly died, according to Mountain Daily Star. The bodies of the dogs were then dumped on the highway according to the police report, Mountain Daily Star reported.
Shockingly, this cruel act did not violate county policies, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Apache County has no animal services department — it is up to the Sheriff’s Office to provide humane aid to animals in need.
“The Deputy involved acted in a professional and most humane manner given the circumstances,” said a spokesperson for the Apache County Sheriff’s Office in a statement given to 12News. “He exhausted all other alternatives available to him at the time and acted under the approval of his immediate supervisor.”
These dogs needed help. They needed safe refuge, food, water, and medical care. Instead, they were brutally shot to death.
Sign our petition urging the Apache County Board of Supervisors to establish an animal services department and humanely address the problem of animal abandonment within their county. Policy change must be enacted so no more helpless, abandoned animals have to die.
