A newly released police report provides the first detailed account from the Cedartown officer who shot and killed HeeHaw, a bottle-raised donkey, while helping search for a missing 12-year-old girl in Polk County.
and the family sues the department for everything they have.
Unfortunately, the law generally doesn’t recognize ‘pain and suffering’ or ‘emotional anguish’ damages in cases involving death/injury to an animal. Generally, courts view animals strictly as property, so it would be taken as a ‘damage to property’ case, and damages would be limited to the replacement value of the donkey. Maybe also the cost of disposing of the body. Not sure what baby miniature donkeys go for these days, but it can’t be more than a few thousand at most. And that’s if the court agrees that shooting the donkey was unreasonable and unnecessary … which I wouldn’t hold my breath on – they tend to side with the cops most of the time.
Unfortunately, the law generally doesn’t recognize ‘pain and suffering’ or ‘emotional anguish’ damages in cases involving death/injury to an animal. Generally, courts view animals strictly as property, so it would be taken as a ‘damage to property’ case, and damages would be limited to the replacement value of the donkey. Maybe also the cost of disposing of the body. Not sure what baby miniature donkeys go for these days, but it can’t be more than a few thousand at most. And that’s if the court agrees that shooting the donkey was unreasonable and unnecessary … which I wouldn’t hold my breath on – they tend to side with the cops most of the time.