Police Officer Who Shot & Killed HeeHaw the Donkey Who Lived at a Children’s Petting Zoo Just Got Sued

A Georgia police officer who shot and killed a one-year-old miniature donkey named HeeHaw during a search for a missing child is now facing a federal civil rights lawsuit, with the animal’s owner arguing that the officer had no lawful reason to enter the enclosed property and no reasonable justification for using deadly force against the donkey.

Attorney John Bryan, host of The Civil Rights Lawyer YouTube channel, discussed the case with attorneys Solomon Radner and Chris McCormick, who are representing HeeHaw’s owner, Hannah Israel. The lawyers said they are still waiting to see the body-camera footage and other evidence that could show exactly what happened before Officer Trenton Garner fired the shot.

That missing footage is now one of the biggest unanswered questions in the case, because Garner’s account says the donkey charged officers, while Israel’s lawyers describe HeeHaw as a small, gentle animal that was accustomed to approaching people on the property.

Lawsuit Filed After HeeHaw Was Shot

McCormick told Bryan that a federal lawsuit had already been filed and that Radner intended to join the case.

He said the legal action followed widespread public anger over the shooting, including a small protest in Cedartown, Georgia, where people gathered with signs calling for justice and greater transparency.

McCormick described the protest itself as peaceful, though he said the police presence around it appeared unusually heavy for the size of the crowd.

He also described a confrontation involving Garner’s father and a local reporter, during which equipment was allegedly damaged and a microphone was knocked away.

McCormick said he later sent preservation demands seeking body-camera footage, internal communications and other records from agencies connected to the incident and the protest.

His goal, he explained, was not only to understand what happened to HeeHaw but also to examine how local authorities responded afterward.

Lawyers Say Key Video Has Not Been Released

Bryan asked whether there was body-camera footage of the shooting.

McCormick said the police report indicates Garner had his body camera turned on and that a drone associated with a fire department may also have captured footage from above.

Despite that, the lawyers said none of the footage had been released to them.

McCormick said he had submitted public-records requests and evidence-preservation demands to multiple agencies, including the sheriff’s office, police department, fire department and Department of Agriculture.

The responses, he said, have generally cited an active investigation as the reason for withholding the records.

Radner argued that the lack of released footage raises questions because police agencies often publish body-camera video quickly when they believe it clearly supports an officer’s actions.

“If the video actually showed that, I have a strong suspicion that by now we would have already seen it,” he said, referring to Garner’s claim that the donkey posed an immediate threat.

Radner was careful to acknowledge that the lawyers do not yet know what the footage shows.

That distinction matters. The video could ultimately support the officer’s account, weaken it, or show a more complicated interaction than either side currently describes, which is why the unreleased footage has become so important.

Officer Says Donkey Charged Toward Police

According to the account discussed by Bryan and the attorneys, officers were in the area searching for a missing 12-year-old girl and entered Israel’s property while following a scent with a bloodhound team.

The property included pasture, woods and animals, and the lawyers said officers would have had to enter an enclosed area to get inside.

They said the missing child was later found nearby, but they were not aware of evidence showing that she had actually been on Israel’s property.

Garner’s police report, as described in the discussion, says HeeHaw approached or charged toward officers and continued coming closer even after another officer activated the electrical arc on a Taser to scare him away.

Garner said he fired one shot because he believed the donkey could injure the K-9 handler or other members of the search team.

Israel’s attorneys strongly dispute that characterization.

They said HeeHaw lived around people and children and was used to approaching visitors because the property functioned in part as a petting-zoo-type environment.

McCormick said he would be surprised if the footage showed the donkey suddenly behaving like a dangerous animal.

Why Was The Owner Not Called?

One of the central questions raised by the lawyers is why police did not contact Israel before entering the pasture.

McCormick said authorities already had her phone number and were able to reach her afterward, which makes the lack of earlier contact harder for him to understand.

He acknowledged that police will likely argue that they were dealing with an emergency involving a missing child and therefore had an urgent reason to search the area without waiting.

Still, he questioned why an officer could not have called Israel while the search was underway, especially since authorities knew animals were kept on the property.

The attorneys said Israel might have been able to tell officers where animals were located, help move them, or at minimum warn them about what they could encounter.

That point does not automatically resolve the legality of the entry, but it goes directly to the lawsuit’s claim that the search may have been unreasonable.

Qualified Immunity Could Be A Major Obstacle

Radner was notably cautious about the lawsuit’s chances.

He told Bryan that despite the emotional strength of the case, he believes qualified immunity could make it difficult to get the claims before a jury.

Qualified immunity can protect government officials from civil liability unless they violated a clearly established constitutional right under circumstances sufficiently similar to existing precedent.

Radner said the problem is that federal courts may distinguish a case involving a donkey from prior cases involving dogs or other animals.

He also said the search for a missing child could lead a court to find that exigent circumstances justified entering the property.

“I think there’s a good chance we’re going to lose this case,” Radner said, emphasizing that he did not say that lightly.

Bryan agreed that the case could be difficult at the judicial stage even if a jury might be sympathetic once it heard the facts.

That is one of the most interesting legal issues here, because the emotional question, whether shooting a small petting-zoo donkey was reasonable , is not necessarily the same as the constitutional question a federal judge must answer.

Lawsuit Raises Three Constitutional Claims

McCormick explained that the federal complaint currently centers on three legal theories.

The first involves an alleged unlawful entry onto the property.

The second is an unreasonable seizure claim under the Fourth Amendment, based on the destruction of the donkey as property.

The third alleges deprivation of property without due process.

McCormick said he believes the Fourth Amendment seizure claim is the strongest of the three because killing an animal can qualify as a seizure of property under federal law.

The lawsuit currently targets Garner individually, while the lawyers said they are continuing to investigate whether claims involving municipal liability could be added later.

Israel is also seeking damages, and McCormick said a notice connected to possible state-law claims requested $1 million, though he made clear that figure was not an expectation that the government would simply pay that amount.

Owner Learned About The Shooting Afterward

The lawyers said Israel was not present when HeeHaw was shot and did not learn about it until a supervisor called her sometime after 1 a.m.

According to McCormick, the supervisor told her that officers had “dispatched” the animal.

Israel then went looking for HeeHaw with a 15-year-old girl who lived on the property.

McCormick said the teenager had formed a strong emotional bond with the donkey and had used time with the animal as a source of comfort.

The two eventually found HeeHaw’s body in the dark.

McCormick said the police report indicates the donkey was able to turn and walk away after being shot before later collapsing, which has led the lawyers to question whether immediate veterinary treatment might have changed the outcome.

They do not know whether the donkey could have survived, and McCormick acknowledged that uncertainty.

Still, the fact that HeeHaw apparently remained alive for some period after the shooting has become another painful part of the case for the family.

Agriculture Department Is Still Investigating

The lawyers said the Georgia Department of Agriculture later became involved and took HeeHaw’s body for forensic examination.

McCormick said the remains were expected to be taken to the University of Georgia for veterinary analysis, while records related to that investigation had not yet been released.

He said officials indicated the investigation was still ongoing and could take several more weeks.

Garner was also placed on administrative leave while that outside investigation proceeds, according to the case information discussed in the video.

For now, much of the dispute remains unresolved because the most important evidence has not been made public.

Bryan said that once the body-camera and drone footage are available, the case could look very different depending on what they show.

Until then, Israel’s lawyers are pressing forward with a lawsuit that asks a basic question with much larger constitutional implications: whether an officer searching private property for a missing child acted reasonably when he entered an enclosed pasture and shot a young donkey that belonged to the landowner.