Sheriff's deputy fired for shooting 'aggressive' 9 pound Chihuahua mix in the face

Sabrina Rojas Weiss
Sheriff's deputy fired for shooting 'aggressive' 9 pound Chihuahua mix in the face

An Arkansas sheriff’s deputy has been fired for shooting a 9 lb. dog in the face on Friday in an incident that was captured on video and has since gone viral.

Before you watch the disturbing video, you may be relieved to learn that the brown and tan Chihuahua mix named Reese’s is in stable condition, but she suffered a shattered jaw and has not been able to eat due to bone fragments in her stomach.

The whole mess began on Friday afternoon in Faulkner County, Arkansas, when the sheriff’s department received a complaint about an aggressive dog. Canady told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that a neighbor had been waving a gun at the dog in his property and said she was calling the authorities. He left the premises to go to a gas station, and when he returned home, the deputy approached him outside.

In the video, the small dogs are seen barking and running around as Canady refuses to come to Deputy Keenan Wallace.

“Okay, I’m going to come to you. If the dog gets aggressive, I’m going to shoot,” Wallace said. In a few seconds, he does just that.

“Are you f***ing kidding me?!” Canady yells, as the dog cries and writhes in pain.

In a separate video from Canady’s security camera, obtained by KATV, the dogs appear to be keeping their distance from Wallace when he shoots.

Canady told KATV that he was scared for his own life after that: “What’s he going to do to me? Look what he just did to a little bitty dog, and he’s chasing me to my front door with a Taser. What’s going to happen to me?”

Brittney Wright, an employee at the Conway Animal Welfare unit and a trained animal behavior analyst, told the Democrat-Gazette that the dog did not appear aggressive in the video.

“Any animal situation can be handled without lethal force, and that [dog] posed absolutely zero threat,” she told the paper.

Children in the neighborhood reportedly played with Reese’s regularly. “She’s a friendly dog. She’s sweet. She doesn’t bite people,” Myranda Dixson, one such neighborhood kid, told KATV.

Though the Sheriff’s Department initially released a statement saying that the dog was acting aggressive, Sheriff Tim Ryals later wrote a post on Facebook explaining that he had fired Wallace.

“I believe there were numerous opportunities to de-escalate the incident,” Ryals wrote. While he said that it appears Wallace did not violate any policies or laws, his actions “fell short” of the department’s standards. “Our Department is sadden about this incident and apologize for any distress and disappointment this incident has caused anyone who was affected by this disheartening event. We will keep Reeses in our thoughts through the recovery process.”

According to Reese’s GoFundMe page, the dog ran away and hid after the incident, and Canady had to leave for work. His father contacted “a rescue,” and they were able to take Reese’s to the vet, where Canady footed the initial $2,400 bill. Though Canady initially said Reese’s wasn’t his, he has decided to care for the dog completely. The GoFundMe site has raised more than $8,500 for her medical costs.

“She’s doing well, considering all things!!” Canady wrote on Facebook on Sunday, sharing a video of the dog. “Has bone fragments in her stomach and doing surgery tomorrow on both her jaw and to remove the bones!”

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