Disturbing police bodycam video shows the moment that an Arizona deputy shot seven abandoned dogs. Despite many local residents being appalled by the lethal police shooting, the sheriff's office has defended the officer's actions and said he acted in "a professional and most humane manner given the circumstances."

Residents complained about abandoned dogs at a property in Adamana, Arizona — an unincorporated community about 100 miles east of Flagstaff. Neighbors said the dogs would attack their livestock.

Apache County Sheriff's Office Deputy Jarrod Toadecheenie – the responding officer – wrote in his incident report that the dogs were owned by a couple who were getting divorced and had abandoned the property.

Deputy Toadecheenie went to the abandoned property on Sept. 22, 2023.

Police bodycam footage shows seven emaciated and dehydrated dogs. The dogs don't appear to be aggressive toward the officer.

The deputy lures the starving dogs into a fenced area with food and water. The famished dogs feverishly gobble up the food.

The bodycam video originally obtained by the Mountain Daily Star shows the deputy exiting the fenced-in area and then putting on headphones.

Toadecheenie is heard saying, "Oh God. This is gonna suck."

As the dogs approach the officer with wagging tails, the deputy then proceeds to shoot the dogs one by one. Deputy Toadecheenie shot one dog two additional times because it continued to move.

Two of the abandoned dogs were able to escape and hid under a shed. They were later brought to a local animal shelter. One reportedly died of parvovirus shortly after arriving, and the other was adopted.

The bodycam footage shows the deputy dragging the lifeless bodies to his truck. He later dumped the dead dogs near railroad tracks, according to the incident report.

The grim video can be seen here.

"The deputy involved acted in a professional and most humane manner given the circumstances."

The Apache County Sheriff's Office defended the actions of Deputy Toadecheenie, and told KSAZ-TV:

The deputy involved acted in a professional and most humane manner given the circumstances. He exhausted all other alternatives available to him at the time and acted under the approval of his immediate supervisor. The incident was reviewed by ACSO Command Staff, and the Deputy was found to have acted within agency policy.

The sheriff's office explained that Apache County spans more than 11,00 square miles and does not have an animal care or control department. The Apache County Sheriff's Office said the county does not have the infrastructure or budget for an animal control department, which leaves just a "handful of deputies" to make "split-second life or death decisions and handle any situation they are confronted with in a professional manner within the law."

"Animals are dying everywhere in the county."

However, not everyone in Apache County agrees with the decision to shoot seven abandoned dogs.

Teresa Schumann – founder of the nonprofit Northern Arizona Animal Search and Rescue – told the Washington Post, "The Apache County Sheriff’s Office won’t do anything to fix the problem. Animals are dying everywhere in the county."

Schumann added, "They say they can't afford to do animal services, and I'm sorry, I don't believe that. There are plenty of people who are trying to help."

Schumann said the deputy had contacted her about taking the dogs before the deadly incident, but her facility did not have any room and she couldn't find homes for them. The deputy allegedly told her that he would "handle it."

In his report, Toadecheenie said Schumann told him that if the dogs were aggressive, they may have to be euthanized.

Schumann told KPNX, "I told him if the dogs were feral, we were going to have to try and find somebody that would be willing to work with these dogs. I said it takes a lot, but no, I never said they needed to be shot.”

However, Schumann said had she known the animals would have been shot and killed, she would have intervened.

As Blaze News reported last month, a disturbing police bodycam was released that showed a cop shoot and kill a "non-aggressive" deaf and blind 13-pound dog.

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