00:00some residents in Apache County are calling for an investigation tonight. It
00:03stems from a body cam video showing a deputy shooting and killing seven dogs
00:08last year. Yeah they argue charges were never filed and nothing is being done
00:12about the ongoing animal control crisis in the area and a warning this video is
00:17very hard to watch.
00:23What began as a welfare call to the Apache County Sheriff's Office to check
00:28on nine emanciated, dehydrated and abandoned dogs on a property in
00:34Adamana, an area outside of Holbrook, soon became the site of a mass
00:39slaughtering carried out by one deputy armed with a handgun.
00:48Molly K. Ottman is the executive editor of the Mountain Daily Star. She first
00:52reported on the story getting the officer's body cam video showing
00:57Deputy Toto Cheney enter an abandoned property, feed the pups one last time,
01:03then open fire on seven dogs through a fence. While some fell dead quickly,
01:08others had to be shot repeatedly while they yelped and shrieked in pain. It
01:14was awful. It was horrible for these dogs and the fact that these dogs,
01:19most of these dogs were puppies. Teresa Schumann of the Northern Arizona
01:23Animal Search and Rescue says the deputy initially called her hoping she
01:27could take the puppies, but she had no room. Had she have known what the
01:31sheriff's office would resort to, including dumping the bodies of the
01:35seven dogs onto a highway, she'd have intervened. They say they can't afford
01:41um, to do animal services and I'm sorry, I don't believe that Schumann is
01:46calling for an investigation into how Sheriff Joseph Deadman Jr is running
01:51his office and dealing with the area's out of control animal hoarding crisis.
01:56She wants to know why the original owners of the dogs were never cited and
02:01why deputies are allowed to euthanize unwanted dogs. Meanwhile, residents who
02:06called deputies for help in dealing with roaming packs of dozens of abandoned
02:11dogs say the pups are so hungry they've become aggressive. But shooting dogs
02:17dead is not the answer. The Apache County Sheriff's Office told Fox 10 in
02:21a statement. The deputy involved acted in a professional and most humane
02:26manner. Given the circumstances, he exhausted all other alternatives
02:30available to him at the time and acted under the approval of his immediate
02:35supervisor.
02:38Hard to watch. The Apache County Sheriff's Office says there is no
02:41animal control department for the area. Approval for that would have to come
02:45from the Board of Supervisors.
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