DALLAS – A volunteer firefighter in Royse City outside of Dallas is getting backlash for shooting two dogs and posting pictures of the dead animals on Facebook, according to NBC affiliate KXAS.
Tim Conatser, who works at the Union Valley Fire Department, posted the picture with the caption "Somebody didn't put any truth to my warning. Keep your damn dogs on your property."
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Kevin Forester, a family friend, said Conatser told him that the dogs were attacking his livestock.
"The two dogs were in his barn, tearing up his calf in the barn," Forester said. "so he went in the house and shot them, and shot them dead on his property."
Forester said the dogs belonged to a neighbor.
A state statute says a dog or coyote that attacks livestock or domestic animals may be killed by the animals' owner if the predator is discovered on the owner's property as the attack is happening, or immediately afterward.
Union Valley Fire Chief Edwards Ragsdale said the department has received death threats in connection with the incident.
"We've had comments all the way from England, Portugal, Canada, a lot of them negative," said Ragsdale. "I would say for every negative comment, I'd say we had five in our favor."
The chief said Conatser called him Thursday and asked that he be removed from the department for now because of the threats.
"He says he apologized and he's guilty of posting this on Facebook," said Ragsdale. "He's young and he realizes what he did was wrong."
The chief said the department's in-house board of directors is also investigating to see if Conatser should be removed from the department permanently.
Conatser's friend said Facebook has taken down his page.