City of Sturgeon Agrees to Pay $500,000 in Settlement Over Police Shooting of Blind, Deaf Dog

Contact: media@aldf.org

STURGEON, Mo. — The City of Sturgeon, MO, and one of its police officers have agreed to pay $500,000 as part of a settlement over the shooting a blind, deaf, 13-pound Shih Tzu mix named Teddy. Filed in May 2024, the federal lawsuit alleged that Sturgeon failed to properly train, supervise, and discipline its officer.

In May 2024, Attorneys Daniel J. Kolde and Eric C. Crinnian filed the lawsuit in United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri on behalf of Teddy’s guardian, Nicholas Hunter seeking compensation in excess of $1 million for violation of his rights under the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) provided a grant to help cover costs for the lawsuit.

The attorneys and Mr. Hunter shared the following:

“Mr. Hunter is relieved this matter is concluded but nothing can ever bring his Teddy back. Teddy was a good dog who did not deserve this. We hope that other departments will learn from this and train their officers better in the future so events like this don’t happen again. We also are grateful to the ALDF for their support and efforts to bring light to tragedies like Teddy and encourage better training and more responsible police behavior towards beloved family pets.”

“This historic settlement is one of the largest of its kind for the police shooting of a beloved family dog,” said Chris Green, executive director at ALDF. “These horrendous tragedies are completely unnecessary and preventable with simple, adequate training. I hope this half-million-dollar amount sends a message to other police departments that if your officers needlessly harm an animal, you will pay.”

“The size of the settlement in this case shows just how important we recognize pets are to our families — and shows how police departments need to update their policies and practices to realize that importance,” said Jim Crosby, a retired police lieutenant who designed the Law Enforcement Dog Encounter Training course for the National Sheriff’s Association, which was approved by the U.S. Department of Justice for training law enforcement officers at all levels across the United States.

In an incident that has drawn international media attention, on May 19, 2024, a neighbor found Teddy wandering in her backyard after he escaped his own fenced yard. Because the police in the 900-person town of Sturgeon also are responsible for animal control duties, the neighbor called them to assist in locating Teddy’s owner.

Body camera footage shows the officer arriving and spending about three minutes attempting to use his snare pole to try and lasso Teddy before finally giving up and simply shooting him at close range. The footage clearly shows the small, blind dog posed no threat to the officer or anyone else.

The settlement comes after a motion for summary judgement was filed in August 2025 with findings from the depositions. The deposition included Hunter, whose dog was killed. The defendants also provided depositions including Police Officer Myron Woodson who shot Teddy and the City of Sturgeon, which oversees local law enforcement including Sgt. Thomas Crawford who trained Woodson.

The motion described how Sturgeon, by ordinance, placed animal control duties within the purview of the police and obligated them to impound stray animals. To facilitate their performance of animal control duties, Sturgeon provided its officers with a catch pole to secure animals and executed a contract with Boone County, MO, to provide limited animal control functions including shelter, assistance to officers, and emergency response for injured animals.

However, the motion argued Sturgeon never trained Woodson about his obligations under the law, nor how to use the city-provided catch pole, nor did they even tell Woodson that the agreement with Boone County existed. Moreover, the city failed to supervise and discipline Woodson despite repeated and severe misconduct. When Woodson began as a Sturgeon officer in September 2023, by the new year, he had received three written citizen complaints including reaching into a vehicle and snatching a cell phone out of the hand of a teenager — a violation of the Fourth Amendment.

Eight months into Woodson’s tenure when Teddy was killed, the Mayor, the City Attorneys, and Crawford came to his aid. Crawford wrote, and the City Attorney edited, the May 20, 2024, Facebook post claiming Teddy may have been rabid and cleared defendant Woodson of wrongdoing, despite not viewing the body camera footage. On May 23, 2024, Sturgeon again posted defending Woodson, this time claiming he protected the public.

When Woodson updated his police report with dubious claims about the incident, the City Attorney, Mayor, and Crawford all expressed concerns but did nothing. When Woodson showed up on city property during his suspension despite being told to stay away, he suffered no repercussions. The final act of the Sturgeon’s ongoing failure to discipline Woodson, was when they publicly claimed they would be investigating him for shooting Teddy pursuant to Missouri statute, and quietly did nothing. Instead, they paid him $16,000 and read a statement clearing him of any wrongdoing.

Last week, it was reported that Myron Woodson was criminally charged with trespassing in his current role as a process server for entering a property he had been told by police not to revisit and allegedly threatening to have people there arrested.

The DOJ has estimated that each year as many as 10,000 dogs are shot and killed by police, and the issue is one that ALDF has been involved with for many years. In 2015, we helped pass a law in Texas mandating statewide animal encounter training for all police officers that reduced the number of such shootings by over 90 percent. In 2016, ALDF also helped fund the documentary Of Dogs And Men, which explores solutions to the problem and features the organization’s current executive director, Chris Green. In 2020, Green also authored and helped pass an American Bar Association Resolution recommending comprehensive animal encounter training for all law enforcement officers.