Puppycide

A Colorado Town Will Pay $675,000 To Settle a Lawsuit After a Police Officer Shot a Family's Dog

The family's attorney says it's the largest settlement for a dog shooting case in Colorado history.

C.J. Ciaramella | 6.16.2026 1:58 PM

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL Add Reason to Google

Media Contact & Reprint Requests

(City of Loveland Police Department)

The city of Loveland, Colorado, will pay $675,000 to end a lawsuit against a police officer for shooting a family's dog—a record settlement for the police killing of a pet in the state, the family's attorney says.

Wendy Love and Jay Hamm filed a civil rights lawsuit in 2021 accusing Loveland police officer Mat Grashorn of recklessly killing their 14-month-old dog, a Staffordshire terrier and boxer mix named Herkimer, in a 2019 incident. The lawsuit alleged that Grashorn's shooting of Herkimer was an unreasonable seizure under the Fourth Amendment and violated their constitutional rights.

Now Loveland has agreed to pay Love and Hamm, as well as create new recurring training requirements for officers on how to deal with dogs.

"For seven years, this family has been told by LPD's chain of command that what Grashorn did was reasonable, was within policy, and required no changes," Sarah Schielke, the attorney representing Love and Hamm, said in a press release announcing the settlement. "But today, the size of this long-awaited settlement and its terms prove otherwise."

© Reason.com