09/02/2026
Jackass Cop Killed HeeHaw — Shot Dead in His Own Pasture
A Cedartown, Georgia police officer shot and killed a one-year-old donkey named Hee Haw — in his own pasture, on his owner's private property.Hee Haw was one hour old when Hannah Israel brought him home. She bottle-fed him, he slept in her bed in a diaper for three months, and he grew up thinking he was a person. He worked petting zoos where kids lined up to touch him and visited nursing homes where he let people in wheelchairs touch his face. Every time he saw a human, he ran straight at them to say hello.At roughly 1 AM on Ellsbury Farm in Polk County, a Cedartown officer — assisting Polk County Police on a search for a missing child — walked into that pasture and shot Hee Haw dead. The family spent the next hour searching the pasture in the dark with flashlights to find his body. He is now on paid administrative leave. No apology, according to Hannah. And Chief Newsom confirms bodycam video exists and that he has watched it — but refuses to release it.This is the second time this year I've covered Georgia law enforcement killing an animal. In Jeff Davis County, a deputy shot two bulls that were loose through a damaged fence. But Hee Haw wasn't loose. By the Chief's own words, he was in his own pasture. That one fact changes the entire legal analysis.In this breakdown I cover:
1. Why killing Hee Haw is a Fourth Amendment seizure and why the test is not "was the officer scared" but "was it objectively reasonable"
2. Why the law calls Hee Haw "property" — like a lawnmower — and limits damages to fair market value, and why his documented specialized use for petting zoos and nursing homes is the argument for value beyond livestock
3. How exigent circumstances and the open fields doctrine may justify the entry for a missing child, but do NOT automatically justify everything that happens after entry
4. Why the timing matters — where was that child when the shot was fired? If the child had already been found, the emergency justification was gone
5. Federal Section 1983 unreasonable seizure vs state claims like conversion, and the two immunities that kill these cases before they start: qualified immunity federally and sovereign immunity + ante litem notice for claims against a Georgia city
6. Why fee-shifting under Section 1983 is the only reason a case worth a few hundred dollars could ever be filed at all
7. Why this case is NOT going to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Chief Newsom says HE contacted the Georgia Department of Agriculture Law Enforcement Division. The head of the department whose officer pulled the trigger picked the agency to judge whether it was justified. An agency you personally call is not automatically independent
8. What you can actually do: filing a formal complaint with the Georgia Department of Agriculture Animal Protection Section creates a file number that journalists can request, legislators can point to, and lawyers can subpoena. Online outrage disappears in 72 hours. A file number does not
Timestamps:
0:00 HeeHaw — bottle-fed at an hour old, and how he greeted people
3:48 The night an officer walked into his pasture
5:13 The chief admits the donkey was in its own pasture
6:57 Here we go again — the Jeff Davis bulls
9:04 The one word that decides whether she sees a dollar
15:11 The chief watched the body camera and won't say what's on it
18:40 Why the Department of Agriculture and not the GBI
21:20 How to file a complaint that actually leaves a record
Do you think the officer was justified? Should that bodycam be released right now? should a police shooting be investigated by the Dept of Agriculture?
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