Cedartown Police Officer Trenton Garner has been placed on administrative leave after fatally shooting HeeHaw, a bottle-raised petting zoo donkey owned by Elsberry Riding and Farm, during a nighttime search for a missing 12-year-old girl. The officer says the donkey charged his team; the donkey’s owner says he was simply doing what donkeys do — alerting to a stranger on his own property.
HeeHaw the donkey was bottle-fed as a baby, raised in the house, and spent his life doing petting zoos, according to the family that owned him. He’d never known a stranger to fear. Early Sunday morning, that same trusting nature may have cost him his life.
What Happened
Cedartown Police Officer Trenton Garner was dispatched around 12:45 a.m. Sunday to assist a bloodhound tracking team searching for a missing 12-year-old girl in Polk County, Georgia. According to Garner’s incident report, the dogs followed a trail to a gate leading into a pasture owned by Elsberry Riding and Farm — a local business offering trail rides, pony rides, and petting zoos.
Citing the urgency of the search, officers and the K-9 team entered the pasture without notifying the owner or obtaining permission, according to the report.
Garner’s report describes what happened next: as the team moved along the fence line, horses in the pasture spooked and ran off. A K-9 handler spotted a donkey on the side of a hill, which then began moving toward the group. Officers say the Haralson County K-9 team retreated as the handler drew his Taser and attempted to use it to deter the animal. When that failed, Garner drew his department-issued Glock 17 and fired a single round, striking the donkey. HeeHaw turned away, retreated up the hill, and collapsed.
Officers then radioed Polk County 911 to report that Garner had used his firearm to stop the donkey and prevent injury to the K-9 handler and the tracking team.
The Missing Girl Was Found Nearby
According to the incident report, the missing girl was located a short time later, further down Grady Road — in the same direction the bloodhound team had been tracking before the encounter with HeeHaw interrupted the search.
The Owner’s Response
Garner spoke afterward with the donkey’s owner, Hannah Israel, who told him HeeHaw had been bottle-fed since infancy and “would never act aggressive towards anyone, nor would it try to bite anyone.”
Israel later shared her grief and anger publicly on Facebook. “HeeHaw was raised in the house and did petting zoos he never knew a stranger,” she wrote. “And was shot and killed in his OWN pasture for doing what donkeys do. Alerting to a stranger.”
The family’s belief is straightforward: HeeHaw’s friendliness — his habit of running right up to people rather than fleeing from them — is likely what got him killed.
Fallout and Investigation
The shooting made national headlines after Israel’s Facebook post announcing she intended to pursue legal action. Cedartown Police Chief Jamie Newsom confirmed that Garner has been placed on administrative leave and called the shooting a “heartbreaking event.” The investigation has since been handed off to the Georgia Department of Agriculture’s law enforcement division.
The Cedartown and Polk County police departments have denied requests for additional footage and reports, citing the ongoing investigation.
Broader Legal Questions
Beyond the loss of HeeHaw himself, the incident has drawn scrutiny from civil liberties advocates, who note that officers entered the Elsberry Riding and Farm pasture without notifying the owner or obtaining permission. That detail, they say, raises serious Fourth Amendment questions about unreasonable search and seizure — even in the context of an active search for a missing child.
