A Texas man said this week that he was forced to kill his dog with his bare hands after an officer who he called to investigate a burglary shot the animal because it was barking.

Earlier this week, Cole Middleton explained on Facebook that he had contacted the Rains County Sheriff’s Department about a robbery last Friday.

Middleton admitted that his 3-year-old dog, Candy, was probably barking when the Deputy Jerred Dooley arrived, but he insisted that the animal had never bitten anyone.

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“I shot your dog, sorry,” Middleton recalled Dooley saying.

Middleton said Candy had been shot behind the ear, but she was not dead.

“I BEGGED him to shoot her again (SINCE MY WEAPONS WERE STOLEN!) and he refused,” Middleton wrote on Facebook. “I then had to do the otherwise unthinkable and take my poor baby’s life with my own hands while praying for this to be over with.”

In a video posted to Facebook, Middleton sobbed as he told other officers how he was forced to drown Candy.

“They then asked, ‘Well whose blood is on your shirt?’ That is the blood of my dog that I was holding because this deputy pulled up and shot her in my yard. Then the Tasers were put away and the pistols withdrawn,” Middleton told KLTV.

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Texas Rangers are now investigating the case, KLTV reported Rains County Sheriff David Traylor declined to comment.

Watch the video below from Cole Middleton, recorded April 18, 2014.

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Watch the video below from KLTV, broadcast April 22, 2014.

KLTV.com-Tyler, Longview, Jacksonville, Texas | ETX News

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[Photo: Cole Middleton/Facebook]