HeeHaw was a bottle-raised pet donkey who spent his life doing petting zoos and living peacefully on the Elsberry family farm in Rockmart, Georgia. Early Sunday morning, police officers from the Cedartown Police Department and Polk County Police Department entered the family's pasture without notifying them or asking permission, reportedly searching for a missing person. When HeeHaw came over braying, the way he did with every stranger who visited the farm, an officer says he felt threatened. That officer tried to tase HeeHaw, then shot and killed him.

"They claimed he ran up to them braying and they thought they were in danger and shot and killed him after trying to taze him," donkey owner Hannah Israel wrote in a Facebook post. "We are heartbroken. He was my son."

Cedartown Police Chief Jamie Newsome has confirmed the officer involved was placed on administrative leave while the department investigates, but no city official has explained why officers were on private property overnight without permission, or why lethal force was used against a small farm animal instead of any other option. The Polk County Sheriff's Office says its deputies weren't involved, but confirmed personnel from the Polk County and Cedartown police departments were on scene.

A family shouldn't lose a beloved animal, raised in their own home, because officers trespassed onto their land in the middle of the night. Cedartown and Polk County officials owe HeeHaw's family a full public accounting of what happened and real consequences if the investigation finds the shooting was unjustified.

Sign this petition to demand accountability for HeeHaw's death and real answers for the Israel family.