When a Liberty County Animal Control officer requested a tranquilizer dart to handle a pack of stray dogs near a Hinesville neighborhood last October, his director said no. Instead, Director Steve Marrero instructed the officer to use a crossbow. Two dogs were shot and killed. A third was shot and escaped, presumed dead. The use of crossbows on domestic animals is illegal in the state of Georgia.

Marrero still has his job.

The Georgia Department of Agriculture investigated, issued a stop order barring the agency from taking in animals, and ultimately resolved the matter through a consent order. Liberty County paid a $5,000 fine. Half went to the state. The other half was earmarked for officer training. No criminal charges were filed. The agency has since said it no longer has crossbows in its possession, and operations have returned to normal.

That is not accountability. That is a paperwork resolution for an illegal act that caused the suffering and death of multiple animals.

There is more to this story than one director's decision. When investigators looked into how crossbows ended up being used in the field, they found that the weapons had been issued to officers with no formal policy governing their use and no proficiency training. Officers were given weapons, no rules about when or how to use them, and then asked to make split-second decisions in the field. The predictable result was an illegal, inhumane response to a situation that had a legal, humane alternative available and ready to be requested.

A veterinarian who reviewed the case asked the right question: if an officer is willing to pick up a crossbow and shoot a dog instead of pursuing other available options, what other decisions are being made that the public does not know about?

Georgia's animal control agencies need mandatory written use-of-force policies, approved by the state, before any weapon can be issued or deployed. They need access to and training in humane capture and sedation tools so that lethal force is genuinely a last resort. And when a director personally authorizes an illegal act on the record, a fine is not a sufficient consequence.

Sign this petition to call on Liberty County officials to remove Director Steve Marrero, call on the Georgia Department of Agriculture to require mandatory state-approved use-of-force policies for all animal control agencies, and demand that penalties for illegal methods used on animals in state custody reflect the severity of the violation.