A cannabis farm raid in the Emerald Triangle took a turn for the worse, leaving a dog dead, and people have questions.
Los Angeles Times reports that outrage is growing as details about the incident unfold, given the farm held a license at the state level and was in the process of approval at the county level. As outrage grows, 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 control the situation. The video was uploaded by Kym Kemp, who regularly reports 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 supposed to be a $500 misdemeanor.
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 with the North State Major Crimes Investigation Team, Cal Fire, the Trinity County Environmental Health Department, and the Trinity County District Attorney’s Office Victim Advocate assisted in the operation.
SF Gate reports that pot farmer Nhia Pao Yang is not a native English speaker. But the officers shouted commands in English, so he walked towards them with his hands raised. One of the dogs on the site approached one of the officers, who shot the dog.
The police report describes the dogs as “aggressive,” using the word three times, claiming 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 reads, which was posted on Facebook. “Nhia Yang, was non-compliant with Investigators and attempted to keep Investigators away from him by standing near one of the aggressive dogs. When Investigators moved to take Nhia Yang into custody, one of the aggressive dogs attempted to attack an Investigator, who defended himself by firing one shot at the dog. The injured dog was transported to a local veterinary clinic where it passed away. Nhia Yang of Hayfork, CA was arrested for illegal marijuana cultivation, possession of marijuana for sale and resisting arrest.”
Saxon said the dog was killed by a Cal Fire employee and that Cal Fire was conducting an investigation into the matter.
Yang was later charged with unlawful possession of cannabis, lack of dog licenses, rabies vaccinations, unreasonable tethering of an animal, allowing a dog to attack or injure someone, and resisting arrest.
California’s Dual Licensing Mess
According to Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) records, Yang’s family has a state license for their small family farm, and they were in the process of getting a license under Trinity County.
Proposition 64 created a dual licensing system that requires farms to obtain both state and local approvals to grow commercial cannabis. Los Angeles Times reports that thousands of farms in Trinity County remain unlicensed. License applicants in 2021 were required to start over, when locals convinced a judge to overturn the county’s cannabis license system because it did not include an environmental review.
The DCC then issued a letter reassuring farms that it would take no action against those who lost their local licenses because of the ruling.
Even the sheriff’s office admits that the dual licensing system isn’t currently working.
“What I wish for is that we would have a consistent policy throughout the state,” Trinity County Sheriff Tim Saxon told the Los Angeles Times. The dual licensing system, he said, is “placing many sheriffs in an uncomfortable situation, including myself.”
Badge wearer or not……
You shoot my dog, you better bring a fucking army and an ambulance, you’re going to need it.
All Cops Are Bastards.
That dog was clearly just curious and saying “hello”. That cop is a snivelling coward of the worst kind.
Hey you pot heads wanna grow, that’s fine. Do it legally. Cops are doing their jobs, If Nhia Pao Yang would bother to actually learn the English language or fake not knowing it, maybe the dog wouldn’t have been shot. Maybe if he would have followed police commands instead of using his attack dog as a shield to keep the cops at bay, the dog wouldn’t have gotten shot. You blame the cops for all the bad things in your lives. Maybe you should be blaming yourselves for poor decisions you’ve made it the past. Don’t give me the crap about it’s just pot…NO NO IT’S NOT. All the hybrid strains out there that can screw you up on just one or two hits, the crap that’s laced with Fentanyl, Meth, Coke, formaldehyde and rat poisoning. No nothing good about weed, not any more.
I hope someone who posted such an angry post about “pot heads” from a weed article gets the therapy they so desperately need. I mean wow, just wow!
M, you are a serious idiot,
It’s obvious “M” is an idiot. Nothing about any good pot grown iis on the same level as hard drugs laced with fentanyl. Id like to see him sit down and be made to smoke pot and then try some of them hard drugs with fentanyl. . And then just for the fun of it someone tell me to play in the street. Idiot…
M is an utter moron. Dude was licensed, they changed the laws cause Commifornia wanted more money so they increased the taxes by wanting everyone to get a second license. Then even if got it, they decided that second license wasn’t enough and that everyone had to do it over again. Dude was in the process of getting the second license when government mafia sent their goon squad on him.
The cops came into the area the dog was. Dude starts to try and get the dog better contained but they deny him. And they keep approaching till they get to where the dog they had already pepper sprayed before even entering the property was apparently tethered.