CEDARTOWN, Ga. — Community members plan to gather outside the Polk County Courthouse at 8 a.m. Friday to call for accountability and transparency after the police shooting of a family’s miniature donkey.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
Demonstrators say they want local officials to release all body camera and drone footage from the shooting and fire the Cedartown officer who shot the animal.
Cedartown police previously released an officer’s report that gave his account of why he shot and killed Heehaw, a 1-year-old miniature donkey, in a pasture along Grady Road in Polk County while officers searched for a missing 12-year-old girl.
According to that report, Officer Trenton Garner wrote that he and K-9 units from multiple agencies were searching on a hill when horses in the pasture were “spooked” near the fence line and ran away. Garner wrote that the Haralson County K-9 unit retreated and that the donkey charged at him and another K-9 handler.
“This in fact did not deter the donkey, so I removed my department issued Glock 17 from its holster and pointed it at the donkey. I then fired a single round striking the donkey,” Garner wrote.
Channel 2 Action News Ashlyn Webb obtained the report. Garner has been placed on leave during the investigation.
TRENDING STORIES
- Man shot, killed in armed robbery at luxury apartments in Buckhead
- Instructor, student called 911 from crashed airplane, critically injured
- Fulton County Jail’s elevator trapped officer with inmates: An inside look at the jail’s issues
Webb spoke with the owner, Hannah Israel, last week. Israel says she is planning to take legal action.
“He was very well socialized. He would go to petting zoos with the kids and adults at nursing homes,” Israel said. “Heehaw thought people were his family and he was our family.”
She too is demanding to see the body camera video of what threat her miniature donkey caused.
“I’ll be shocked, completely shocked if he was being aggressive. Like I’ve mentioned before, he thought he was a dog,” she said. “He was not, like, an attack donkey or anything like that.”
No charges have been filed against Garner. The Georgia Department of Agriculture is investigating.
“We take animal death investigation extremely seriously. This incident will be investigated thoroughly and impartially, and we will make an appropriate recommendation once the investigation has been concluded,” Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper said in a statement.
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
©2026 Cox Media Group
