A bottle-fed donkey named HeeHaw is dead after officers searching for a missing person entered a fenced pasture on Grady Road in Polk County at 12:45 a.m. and fatally shot the animal, according to a Facebook post from the property's owner. The Cedartown Police Department has placed an unidentified officer on administrative leave while command staff investigate the shooting.
The pasture belongs to Elsberry Riding and Farm, a Polk County operation where owner Hannah Israel raised HeeHaw as a pet used for local petting zoos and farm events, according to the farm's own social media account. As reported by FOX 5 Atlanta, law enforcement entered the property's pasture while conducting a search connected to a missing-person investigation. Elsberry Riding and Farm reported in its Facebook post that officers searched the pasture without the owner's permission.
Per the farm's account of the incident, HeeHaw ran up to the officers braying, which is typical behavior for donkeys kept on rural properties, since the animals often act as instinctive alarms that approach and vocalize at nighttime intruders, per University of Georgia Extension research on livestock guardian behavior. The same Facebook post states that officers first tried to tase HeeHaw before officers shot and killed the donkey. Officials have not detailed why the animal was perceived as a threat.
Cedartown Police Chief Confirms Internal Investigation
Cedartown Police Chief Jamie Newsome told FOX 5 Atlanta that command staff launched an investigation into the shooting the same day it happened. The station's report does not identify which officer fired the fatal shot, and officials have not released that officer's identity publicly.
Jurisdiction in the case has already caused confusion locally, since Polk County maintains a separate, dedicated county police department alongside the municipal Cedartown Police Department and the elected Polk County Sheriff's Office. The Polk County Sheriff's Office confirmed that its agency was not involved in the shooting, but said it extended condolences to the family and everyone affected. Per the sheriff's office, both the Polk County Police Department and the Cedartown Police Department were involved in the shooting.
Legal Questions Over Nighttime Entry Onto Fenced Farmland
The incident raises Fourth Amendment questions about whether searching a fenced livestock pasture just before 1 a.m. met the legal bar for warrantless entry. Georgia search-and-seizure protocols generally require voluntary consent, a search warrant, or recognized exigent circumstances such as an immediate threat to human life before officers can enter private curtilage or enclosed farmland, according to guidance from the Georgia Department of Public Safety.
Georgia law also draws a line between negligent and malicious animal harm. Under O.C.G.A. § 16-12-4, animal cruelty is a misdemeanor covering any unjustifiable act causing an animal's death, while aggravated cruelty is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison if death or harm is inflicted maliciously, per Justia Law. It remains unclear whether any charges will be pursued in HeeHaw's death, and officials have not addressed that question publicly.
Broader Scrutiny of Polk County Law Enforcement
The shooting arrives amid other recent accountability questions facing law enforcement in the area. Earlier in August, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested a former Polk County Police Department officer in an unrelated misconduct case involving the alleged misuse of a license-plate-reader system, according to local watchdog reporting on Facebook. Georgia lawmakers this year also passed Senate Bill 587, creating a statewide, publicly searchable animal cruelty database managed by the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council, a measure that received unanimous support in both legislative chambers, per the Georgia Pet Coalition.
Cedartown has faced scrutiny over police use of force before, including a fatal officer-involved shooting in the city in September 2014. Polk County law enforcement has also endured tragedy in the line of duty: in September 2017, Polk County Police Detective Kristen Hearne became the department's first line-of-duty fatality when she was shot and killed while investigating a suspicious vehicle near Cedartown, alongside a fellow officer who survived, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
For now, key details remain unresolved. It is not known whether body-camera or Taser footage of the HeeHaw shooting exists, nor whether the GBI will be asked to conduct an independent use-of-force review. Elsberry Riding and Farm's public Facebook post remains the primary firsthand account of what happened in the pasture before dawn.
