{"id":273765,"date":"2026-09-01T23:08:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T23:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/273765\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T23:08:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T23:08:18","slug":"cedartown-police-officer-shoots-and-kills-pet-donkey-during-missing-child-search-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/273765\/","title":{"rendered":"Cedartown police officer shoots and kills pet donkey during missing child search"},"content":{"rendered":"

CEDARTOWN, Ga. (ANF<\/a>\/Gray News) \u2014 A beloved pet donkey was shot to death Sunday by a police officer in Georgia, officials said.<\/p>\n

Hannah Israel said her farm is \u201cdefinitely not the same\u201d without her 1-year-old donkey named HeeHaw.<\/p>\n

Israel said she did not hear the gunshots but woke up to the heartbreaking phone call at 12:45 a.m. Sunday from police.<\/p>\n

Israel said a police officer shot HeeHaw in his own pasture. Officers were on the property searching for a local missing child.<\/p>\n

\"HannahHannah Israel said she had bottle-raised HeeHaw from birth inside her home. The baby donkey participated in petting zoos at their farm and mobile petting zoos around the community.(Hannah Israel via Atlanta News First)<\/p>\n

Israel said police told her they shot HeeHaw after attempts to hit him with a Taser failed because he was running toward them, braying or yelling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would be normal for him because he\u2019s saying hi. That\u2019s what donkeys do. That\u2019s just being a donkey,\u201d Israel said.<\/p>\n

Israel and her family are demanding answers after the tragic shooting. She questions how the officer got on the property in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very traumatized and shocked,\u201d Israel said. \u201cHe just had his first birthday a couple of months ago. So he was still a baby, and he was my little, he was my kid. He followed me everywhere, just like a dog would.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel said she had bottle-raised HeeHaw from birth inside her home. The baby donkey participated in petting zoos at their farm and mobile petting zoos around the community.<\/p>\n

Israel said HeeHaw loved all animals and people, and that he never knew a stranger.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would normally be right here, wherever I was. If he wasn\u2019t here beside me, he was on the other side of the fence following me wherever I was going,\u201d Israel said.<\/p>\n

Cedartown police confirmed one of its officers shot and killed HeeHaw. That officer is now on paid administrative leave.<\/p>\n

Officials said the Cedartown officer was assisting Polk County police in searching for a missing child. Police said the child was later found at a church near the pasture where the donkey was killed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe should not be dead. The whole circumstances literally say that HeeHaw shouldn\u2019t have died. And donkeys live to be about 35 to 40 years old. Like, I thought I would raise my future kids with HeeHaw, but instead he\u2019s gone. So, it\u2019s very devastating,\u201d Israel said.<\/p>\n

Israel is calling for better training and protocols when responding to properties with animals.<\/p>\n

Israel said her family has hired a lawyer to pursue legal action.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause it\u2019s not OK to enter someone\u2019s property and then shoot their … He was my kid. He wasn\u2019t just a livestock animal. He was literally my child, and it\u2019s just been devastating emotionally,\u201d Israel said.<\/p>\n

The Cedartown Police Department has turned over the shooting to the Georgia Department of Agriculture Law Enforcement Division.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot imagine the grief and frustration that the tragic loss of HeeHaw has caused,\u201d said Cedartown police chief Jamie Newsome.<\/p>\n

The family has started a GoFundMe<\/a> to help pay for legal fees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CEDARTOWN, Ga. (ANF\/Gray News) \u2014 A beloved pet donkey was shot to death Sunday by a police officer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[36923,74597,74599,74605,74606,74595,74607,17647,9367,3156,74604,74600,37,74601,74603,74596,66083,74598,74602],"class_list":["post-273765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-atlanta","tag-baby-donkey","tag-cedartown","tag-cedartown-police-department","tag-cedartown-police-officer","tag-donkey","tag-donkey-shooting","tag-farm","tag-georgia","tag-gofundme","tag-hannah-israel","tag-heehaw","tag-israel","tag-killed-by-police","tag-pasture","tag-pet-donkey","tag-police-shooting","tag-shot-and-killed","tag-shot-and-killed-by-police"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117198304645071489","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}