Puppycide

North Carolina Woman Doesn't Have First Amendment Right to Publish Video of Cop Shooting Her Dogs, Court Rules

A North Carolina state trooper shot Lydia Nikac's two dogs, but an appeals court ruled she doesn't have a right to publish body camera footage of the shooting under the state's restrictive public records laws.

C.J. Ciaramella | 10.8.2026 2:43 PM

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(Lydia Nikac/GoFundMe)

A North Carolina appeals court on Wednesday rejected a woman's First Amendment challenge to a judge's order barring her from publicly sharing body camera footage of a state trooper killing her two dogs.

After a North Carolina State Highway Patrol officer fatally shot two of her dogs in October 2024, Lydia Nikac, a professional dog trainer, got a court order to obtain body camera video recording of the incident, but the trial judge restricted Nikac from sharing the footage publicly. A three-judge panel of the North Carolina Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that judge did not abuse his discretion under North Carolina's statutes, which make body camera footage nonpublic by default.

Nikac argued the restriction amounted to unconstitutional prior restraint under the First Amendment, but the appeals court found that........

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