The deputy knew it was going to be bad.
“This is going to suck,” the bodycam records him saying.
He had corralled seven dogs that had been abandoned into a fenced-off area on their owners property.
And then he shot them, loaded their bodies into a truck and left them near a set of railroad tracks.
The incident happened in September 2023 in Adamana, an unincorporated community in Apache County about 26 miles northeast of Holbrook. The county doesn’t have animal control services and residents often complain about a problem with wild and stray dogs; one candidate for sheriff even has campaigned on a platform of dealing with the county’s abandoned dog problem.
The absence of animal control services in Apache County means that when there are dog issues, they’re often referred to a sheriff’s department whose policy is to try and place them with adoptive agencies. And sometimes, they can’t.
According to the deputy’s report, the couple that owned the dogs was going through a divorce and left the property with no plans of returning. During one visit, the deputy counted 10 dogs on the property. They had no food or water.
Hellbound and Down 