Georgia woman sues officer who shot beloved donkey HeeHaw during search for missing girl

The owner of a beloved donkey shot and killed by a Cedartown police officer is taking her fight for accountability to federal court.

Hannah Israel filed a civil rights lawsuit Sept. 11 against Officer Trenton Garner, alleging that he entered her enclosed pasture without permission or a warrant before killing her donkey, HeeHaw.

The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia's Rome Division. Garner is being sued in his individual capacity. The City of Cedartown and the Cedartown Police Department are not named as defendants.

Israel alleges Garner and other officers entered her Rockmart property late Aug. 29 while searching for a missing 12-year-old girl. The lawsuit says the officers did not contact Israel beforehand and did not have her consent, a warrant or an emergency that legally justified entering the pasture.

The complaint describes HeeHaw as a young, small and calm donkey that posed no threat. It alleges Garner's decision to shoot the animal was unreasonable and violated Israel's constitutional rights.

That account conflicts with what Garner wrote in a Cedartown Police Department incident report. Garner said HeeHaw charged toward the officers and continued approaching after a Polk County K-9 handler activated the electrical arc on a Taser in an attempt to scare him away.

Garner said he fired one shot to protect the K-9 handler and members of a bloodhound team from being injured. HeeHaw moved back up a hill before collapsing, according to the police report.

Israel's lawsuit also alleges that officers left without telling her where HeeHaw's body was located. She said a police supervisor later called and told her that a donkey had been "dispatched," forcing her and a child to search several acres in the dark before finding him.

The lawsuit raises three claims under federal civil rights law: unlawful entry and search, unreasonable seizure and destruction of property and deprivation of property without due process. Israel says she suffered financial loss, emotional distress and mental anguish.

She is seeking compensatory and punitive damages in amounts to be determined at trial, along with attorneys' fees, court costs and interest. She has also requested a jury trial.

Garner was placed on administrative leave while the Georgia Department of Agriculture's Law Enforcement Division conducts an outside investigation.

The missing girl was later found safe.