APACHE COUNTY, Ariz. — 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.
Neighbors began calling the sheriff’s office September 9 complaining that the dogs were malnourished and going after livestock.
Teresa Schumann received a call from one of those neighbors. She is the founder of Northern Arizona Animal Search and Rescue, a nonprofit based 100 miles west of Adamana in Flagstaff. Schumann began trying to find homes for the dogs by posting to her 20,000 followers on Facebook. She was also in contact with the deputy.
'Can you take the dogs?'
“[The deputy] called me when this first happened and asked, ‘Can you take the dogs?’ I said I have no room,” Schumann told 12News.
The deputy, according to Schumann, said the dogs were feral. She told the deputy that she may need more time to find foster homes. In his report, the deputy claims Schumann suggested the dogs may need to be “put down” if they were being aggressive and chasing people — an allegation Schumann denies.
“I told him if the dogs were feral, we were going to have to try and find somebody that would be willing to work with these dogs,” Schumann said. “I said it takes a lot, but no, I never said they needed to be shot.”
On Sept. 22, the deputy called to get an update from Schumann. She still had no place for the dogs to go. The deputy said he was going back to the property to check on them. By this time, the deputy had also reached out to Navajo County Animal Control, according to the report. No one got back to him from the agency.
According to the deputy’s report, one of the dogs’ owners, when reached by phone, “supported the decision of the dogs being shot, if needed.”
Body camera video, provided by Molly Ottman, the editor of the Mountain Daily Star, shows the deputy arriving at the property with dog food and water, which he pours into a metal dish before locking seven dogs into a fenced area.
The deputy called a sergeant and said he would be shooting the dogs “due to conditions of the dogs and no availability of kennel.” The sergeant agreed with the decision, according to the report.
The deputy walks to his truck to grab ear protection, then removes his handgun and shoots the dogs one at a time through the chain-link fence. The dogs, which the deputy described as “aggressive,” scream, howl and yelp.
Schumann watched the video.
“They were puppies. They were standing on their hind legs, tails wagging,” Schumann said. “[The deputy] went in there with food and water — they were not aggressive at all.”
“I was sick,” Schumann added. “It was horrible.”
The deputy was unable to corral two dogs who ran under a shed on the property. He whistles for them to come out, but they stay hidden.
As the deputy begins to haul the bodies of the seven dogs to the back of his marked Apache County Sheriff’s Office pickup, he realizes one is still alive. He shoots and kills it, then drives the dogs to another remote area and dumps their bodies near railroad tracks.
Ottman, reporter and executive editor at the Mountain Daily Star said she shared the body cam video — which took three months to get through a public records request — with 12News hoping the story would get more exposure and put pressure on Apache County officials to make changes.
“Bringing awareness to the ongoing animal crisis in Apache County is pivotal,” Ottman said. “Taking a hard look at the dilemma Apache County is in with the lack of resources for the residents and animals is crucial.”
No charges filed
The deputy submitted a complaint to the Apache County Attorney’s Office recommending charges of animal cruelty against the couple accused of leaving the dogs. To date, charges have not been filed, which is why 12News is not naming the couple. We are also not naming the deputy since he “acted within agency policy,” according to Apache County Sheriff’s spokesperson Jesse Robinson.
Over the course of three weeks, 12News attempted to reach Apache County Sheriff Joseph Dedman, Jr. for an interview. We sent five emails, made three phone calls and went to the sheriff’s office in St. Johns. We were told the sheriff was not in, and unavailable to answer questions. 12News also emailed the sheriff a list of questions.
Sheriff’s spokesperson Jesse Robinson sent the following response:
The Deputy involved acted in a professional and most humane manner given the circumstances. He exhausted all other alternatives available to him at the time and acted under the approval of his immediate supervisor.
The incident was reviewed by ACSO Command Staff, and the Deputy was found to have acted within agency policy.
Apache County is a large county covering over 11,000 square miles, with only a handful of deputies to provide law enforcement and a variety of other services to the citizens of Apache County and the State of Arizona. The deputies are trained to act on their own, make split second life or death decisions and handle any situation they are confronted with in a professional manner within the law.
Apache County does not have an animal care and control department. In the unincorporated areas that responsibility is left up to the deputies and actions taken vary and are considered on a case-by-case basis. We do not have the infrastructure or budget to support such a department.
Approval for such a department would be made by the Board of Supervisors. We have had private agencies like the Arizona Humane Society offer to assist on cases in the past, but not on a consistent basis, mainly due to the remote response and availability of local resources.
12News also attempted to reach Apache County Manager Ryan Patterson by phone, email, and in person. The Apache County Attorney's Office did not respond to inquiries.
Schumann said the two dogs hiding under the couple’s shed were eventually trapped and taken to a shelter in Holbrook.
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