Fresno County family demands answers after CHP officer kills service dog

A Fresno County family says a California Highway Patrol officer killed Silver, their 4-year-old German Shepherd service dog, and they are demanding the body-camera video after a roadside stop turned deadly in the county. The family says the shooting was not justified, and the case is now testing whether CHP’s account matches the facts and whether the officer followed policy.

CHP said officers were responding to a parked RV blocking the roadway when they contacted people near the vehicle. The agency said an untethered German Shepherd aggressively charged an officer, and the officer fired his duty weapon to stop the attack. CHP has not disclosed how many shots were fired.

The Bethel family disputes that version and says Silver was a service dog for a child who has seizures. Shannon Bethel said Silver would alert her son before a seizure. Rachael Bethel said she does not want this happening to anyone else’s “fur baby” and said officers need to understand pets are family, not just pets. Shannon Bethel also said the officer told the family using a Taser would have been “inconvenient.”

CHP’s own manual sets a narrow standard for shooting an animal. It says an officer may discharge a firearm at an animal only in self-defense or to defend another person from serious bodily harm, or when necessary to destroy a critically injured animal, a suspected rabid animal or an animal attacking livestock. The manual says shooting should be a last resort and that a supervisor’s approval should be obtained when possible.

The review now reaches beyond the dog itself. CHP, the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office and the Humane Society are investigating, and the Bethels are pressing for body-camera footage, dispatch audio, witness statements and any prior complaints tied to the officer. CHP says civilian complaints are handled through Internal Affairs, then reviewed through the chain of command before a written response is sent back. That process could become the path for discipline if investigators conclude policy was broken.

The anger in Fresno County is sharpened by a separate dog-killing case that already cost taxpayers millions. In that 2018 case, sheriff’s deputies entered a South Lind Avenue home without consent and shot Scooby, a 4-year-old dog. A Fresno County jury awarded Veronica Ordaz Gonzalez and Jose Ramos Santiago $800,000 in 2023, and an appellate ruling in 2025 pushed the county’s expected cost above $2 million after a Bane Act civil-rights finding.