Authorities in Merced County are investigating a deeply disturbing video showing horses being fatally shot in Atwater, a case that has sparked outrage among animal advocates.
The 2025 bodycam footage has renewed scrutiny of a grim incident at the ranch of Don Gatz, a California horse trader previously linked to animal cruelty concerns.
Merced County Animal Control officers had reportedly been called to the property after receiving complaints about five severely underweight horses, when Gatz’s veterinarian recommended that four of the animals be euthanized by gunfire.
“We can drop them over there and boom, boom boom,” the veterinarian is heard saying in the bodycam video released by Animals’ Angels USA, a Maryland-based animal welfare group.
The footage prompted a wave of concern on social media, with commenters questioning how the euthanasia was carried out. “This video is very disturbing and cruel,” one person wrote.
Another commenter added, “That’s the worst I’ve seen. We have euthanized horses both chemically and by gunshot hundreds of times over the past 40 years and this was so badly done.”
According to the footage, the horses were shot at close range, but at least one did not die immediately. “This one… still has a heartbeat,” one officer can be heard saying several minutes after the shooting.
Officials reportedly failed to follow protocol requiring prompt confirmation of death, waiting more than 25 minutes after the shooting to check whether the horses had died. One horse was said to still show reflexes roughly 40 minutes after being shot.
“I am sorry I had to shoot it so many times,” one of Gatz’s workers admitted to the brutality of pumping 5-6 bullets into a single horse.
The sheriff’s office confirmed that veterinary professionals and Animal Services staff were present during the incident.
Now the police are “reviewing the circumstances surrounding the incident, including applicable best practices, ethical considerations, and accepted industry standards,” the sheriff’s office said in on social media post.
Gatz was sentenced to 60 days and fined $14,000 in 2011 after 15 or the thirty horses on his property required immediate euthanasia and suffered from Strangles infection.
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