The death of HeeHaw, a miniature donkey raised as a pet at Elsberry Farm, located in Rockmart, in Polk County, Georgia (USA), provoked an intense wave of outrage on social media. The animal was shot by an officer from the Cedartown Police Department on Saturday night (8/29), while officers were conducting nighttime searches for a missing child. Upon entering the property grounds, the officers came across the donkey, and one of them reportedly got scared and opened fire on the animal.
The animal's guardian and property owner, Hannah Israel, publicly vented about the incident and started a fundraising campaign to cover legal actions and the care of other animals on the property. The police department's social media accounts were flooded with thousands of messages of condemnation and irony after confirmation that one of the officers shot the donkey right in the farm's pasture.
