Women Sues The City Of Locust Grove, Mayor, Two Police Officers Over The Death Of Her Dogs

A woman is suing the City of Locust Grove, its mayor, and two police officers after she says they unlawfully took her dogs and shot them.

The lawsuit filed by Deanna Shelton says that in August of last year, two Locust Grove police officers forced her to give up her two dogs after threatening to give her tickets for letting them outside the fence. She says she found out later they were taken away and shot.

The lawsuit says Shelton thought if the dogs were removed, they would be dealt with humanely, but 8 days later, Lucky the dog found his way back to her home and had a wounded head.

Shelton says she called the police back out to her house and recorded this conversation with the officer who responded.

"I don't know what you guys did, you say you put him down, but he's not down," Deanna said.

In the recording, the officer Shelton spoke with says they took the dogs out of town to put them down.

"So you guys didn't just dump them and leave them, you guys shot them, is that protocol for what you guys do?” said Deanna.

“Yes, we put them down, that's how we do it," said the officer.

The suit says putting the dogs down in that way goes against state and local laws and was unusually cruel.

It says Locust Grove Mayor Jason Williams, Officer Clay Hall, and Officer Brett Russell allowed this to happen.

"If that isn't just the most cruel thing you can do, I don't know what is," says Shelton's Lawyer Mark Lyons.

He says the people of Locust Grove should take a closer look at who's protecting their city.

"She never in a million years thought that she either had to pay a 175-dollar ticket or the only other alternative was they were gonna take the dogs out and shoot them in the head," he said.

Lyons says the suit is asking for at least 3 million dollars. I called the city to speak with the mayor about the lawsuit and was referred to the city attorney.

I called the attorney for comment, and have not heard back.

Lucky the dog is now living with a foster family and is still dealing with wounds from being shot.