The Case of the Shooting of Three Dogs in Bauska Municipality Transferred to Court 0 6

Four individuals are charged in the criminal case: the former head of the Bauska municipality police, two municipal police officers, and a hunter.

The former head of the Bauska municipality police is charged with intentional actions of a public official that clearly exceeded the rights and powers granted to a public official by law, as well as the tasks imposed on him, and caused significant harm.

The municipal police officers are accused of failing to perform the duties of a public official, namely, that through negligence they did not take actions that a public official was required to take in accordance with the law and the tasks imposed on him, thereby causing significant harm. The hunter is accused of animal cruelty, resulting in their deaths.

On October 10, 2025, following information received about aggressive stray dogs entering private property in the Brunava parish of Bauska municipality, two municipal police officers arrived at the scene.

On the premises, they found three dogs and provided the duty officer of the Bauska municipality police operational management center with a subjective assessment of the aggression and danger posed by the dogs, after which they received information that a hunter and stray animal capture service employees had been called to the scene, the prosecutor's office reported.

The then head of the Bauska municipality police received information from the duty officer of the operational management center that there were two aggressive stray dogs on private property.

Upon receiving this information, he, without personally verifying its compliance with the actual circumstances and evidently violating the rights and powers granted to him by his job description and the Cabinet of Ministers' regulations, as well as violating the established mandatory rules of the Bauska municipality council, which state that the capture of stray domestic animals on the administrative territory of the municipality is ensured by a service provider selected by the municipality, decided to invite a hunter to the scene and ordered him to kill the dogs.

Initially, the leader of the hunting group refused, but after the police chief's repeated request, complying with his unlawful demand, the leader of the hunting group posted a message in the hunting group's WhatsApp group asking hunters who could arrive at the scene to respond to kill the dogs there at the police's request.

A hunter responded to the call and arrived at the scene in the afternoon of October 10, 2025, and, aware of the potential harmful consequences, namely that as a result of his actions the dogs could die, without sufficient reason, in the absence of a threat to his health and life or the health and life of others, unlawfully killed three dogs belonging to Modris Konovalovs.

When the hunter arrived at the scene, the municipal police, aware that he had come to kill the dogs and realizing that these dogs were not attacking or threatening either the people present on the premises or the property at that specific moment, negligently took no action to prevent the unlawful killing of the dogs.

In particular, the municipal police, without waiting for the arrival of representatives from the stray animal capture service to carry out the actions provided for by regulatory acts regarding the capture, identification, and, if necessary, transport of these dogs to an animal shelter, failed to fulfill their duties established in their job description to maintain public order on the administrative territory of Bauska municipality and to control compliance with the mandatory rules adopted by the regional municipality council.