Officer shoots and kills tethered dog in failed weed farm raid

A raid on a cannabis farm in the Emerald Triangle took a dire turn, killing a dog and people have questions.

The Los Angeles Times reports that as more details emerge about the incident, outrage is mounting because the farm was licensed at the state level and was in the process of permitting at the county level. As outrage mounts, some locals are calling for the resignation of Trinity County Sheriff Tim Saxon.

A 36-second video clip shows a Cal Fire officer fatally shooting a dog in a chaotic attempt to bring the situation under control. The video was uploaded by Kym Kemp, a regular on the Emerald Triangle. An officer says in the video, “Hey, don’t touch the dog, he just got pepper sprayed.” Keep in mind that an unlicensed commercial cannabis operation in the county is reported to be a $500 felony.

On May 1-2, 2023, police from the Trinity County Sheriff’s Office obtained a search warrant in the Hayfork and Trinity Pines area. Agents from the North State Major Crimes Investigation Team, Cal Fire, the Trinity County Environmental Health Department, and the Trinity County District Attorney’s Office Victims Advocate assisted in the operation.

SF Gate reports that marijuana farmer Nhia Pao Yang is not a native English speaker. But the officers were shouting orders in English, so he walked towards them with his hands up. One of the dogs at the site approached one of the officers, who shot the dog.

The police report describes the dogs as “aggressive” three times and claims the dogs were trained to attack.

“During the service of the search warrant at Nhia Yang’s property, investigators encountered Yang who had five aggressive dogs on the property,” the press release, published on Facebook, said. “Nhia Yang disobeyed investigators and tried to keep investigators away from him by standing near one of the aggressive dogs. As investigators attempted to arrest Nhia Yang, one of the aggressive dogs attempted to attack an investigator who was defending himself by firing a shot at the dog. The injured dog was transported to a local animal hospital, where he died. Nhia Yang of Hayfork, California, was arrested for illegally growing marijuana, possessing marijuana for sale and resisting arrest.”

Saxon said the dog was killed by a Cal Fire employee and Cal Fire is conducting an investigation into the matter.

Yang was later charged with illegal possession of cannabis, not having a dog license, not being vaccinated against rabies, improperly tethering an animal, allowing a dog to attack or hurt someone, and resisting arrest.

California’s Dual Licensing Chaos

According to the Department of Cannabis Control (DCC), Yang’s family holds a state license for their small family farm and was in the process of obtaining a license in Trinity County.

Proposition 64 created a dual licensing system that requires farms to obtain both state and local permits to grow cannabis commercially. The Los Angeles Times reports that thousands of Trinity County farms remain unlicensed. License applicants in 2021 had to start over when locals convinced a judge to overturn the county’s cannabis licensing system because it lacked an environmental assessment.

The DCC then issued a letter reassuring businesses that it would take no action against those who lost their local licenses as a result of the ruling.

Even the sheriff’s office admits that the dual license system isn’t working right now.

“What I wish for is that we have a consistent policy across the state,” Trinity County Sheriff Tim Saxon told the Los Angeles Times. The dual licensing system, he said, “puts a lot of sheriffs in an awkward position, myself included.”