Cop executes Oregon family's pet pony

After an Oregon family's elderly pony escaped from its stall to wander the neighborhood, a local police officer shot and killed the miniature horse for reasons its owner finds suspect.

When Crista Fitzgerald noticed Gir, her 30-year-old pony, had gone missing one morning, she immediately started looking for him. Spotting Gir laying down in a neighbor's yard, she assumed he'd gone to sleep, but, "We walked up closer and I bent down to pet him, and that's when I saw the pool of blood behind his cheek bones."

When Fitzgerald contacted the officer who had shot the pony, he claimed Gir had been hit by a car and broken his back legs — but two separate vets said there was nothing wrong with Gir when he was killed. The sheriff's office also said the officer contacted the local humane society before shooting the pony, which the humane society denies.

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At the Fitzgeralds' request, the sheriff's department will investigate the incident. Gir "was part of our family," Fitzgerald says. "There's no way to replace him."