An
East Texas man is sad and furious after a sheriff’s deputy shot his dog, Candy,
without provocation.
The
shot did not kill the dog instantaneously. The man, Cole Middleton of Rains
County, Texas, was forced to put Candy out of her misery with his own bare
hands.
Middleton
owns a dairy farm, and Candy was his cattle-herding dog, according to KLTV 7.
The
officer came to the house in response to Middleton’s 911 call. Middleton made
the call around 11:00 AM, after returning to his home and finding it robbed.
Middleton was in his fields when the officer showed up. He was hurrying back to
the house when the deputy shot Candy.
According
to Middleton, the shooting was baseless. Candy did not bite or threaten the
officer.
“She’s
barking when he pulls into the driveway letting me know someone’s at our house,
an intruder is here, or a person who she would think was an intruder that she’s
unfamiliar with,” he said. “She’s barking. The officer gets out of his car, and
all the while we’re headed up [there]. He gets out of his car and shoots my dog
in my front yard.”
Though
shot in the head, Candy did not die immediately. Middleton had no gun of his
own — his weapons were stolen — and tearfully begged the deputy to put down the
dog. The deputy refused.
“And
then I had to do the unthinkable, the otherwise unthinkable,” he said. “I had
to kill my dog with my bare hands and put her out of her suffering, praying for
this to be over with.”
Other
officers soon appeared at the farm, tasers and pistols drawn. They demanded to
know whose blood was all over Middleton’s shirt.
“That
is the blood of my dog that I was holding because this deputy pulled up and
shot her in my yard,” he told them.