Joelle and Reese Withers attend the protest, expressing their outrage over the officer’s actions.
On the night of Jan. 5, a Lethbridge police officer was caught on camera by a local citizen running over an injured deer. The video shows the officer repeatedly running over the animal, who appears to have a broken leg.
Many citizens are outraged by the choice of the officer who continuously drove over the deer in an attempt to euthanize the wounded animal. The events sparked a protest outside the Lethbridge Police station Jan. 13.
Austin Moloughney, one of the organizers of the protest, said the video was horrific and he could not watch the whole thing.
“I feel that the officer needs to be brought to justice and that accountability is a big thing. The officer needs to be accountable for his or her actions and we’d like to see changes in the way the officers respond to these injured animal calls,” said Moloughney.
According to Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, an investigation into the actions of the unidentified officer has been launched.
Another local protester Lois White, who traveled to North Dakota back in 2016 to protest the pipeline, also made an appearance at the rally.
“He could have easily brought it to any vet and it would have been euthanized in a humane way. But no, he wants to murder it and torture it, in front of millions of people,” said White.
Robert Davis, Lethbridge Chief of Police, spoke publicly on the actions of the officer, saying he understands the outrage by the public, but the officer will remain on active duty.
“The officer involved will remained assigned to active duty and I stand behind our training and our officers,” said Davis.
Many in the community have voiced outrage over the officer’s method of euthanizing of the deer. Others say the officer was in a difficult position.
Nigel Caulkett, Veterinarian Professor at the University of Calgary, says he sympathizes with the officer and the officer would have required the proper tools to euthanize the animal. Calukett added the weapon Lethbridge Police use could either be a nine millimetre or .40 caliber Smith and Wesson, which would have sufficed at close range. He said in that case public safety would be a factor if the bullet were to ricochet.
An online petition calling for the firing of the officer, has now reached over 70,000 signatures.
The protestors who attended the rally hope it will bring justice to the actions of the officer.
