An animal control officer trying to save pets from a foreclosed California home was shot to death by the former owner, authorities said.

The officer had gone to the Sacramento-area home after the resident, Joseph Corey, allegedly called and said he could not care for them because he was being evicted by his bank.

The animal control officer went to the home in the community of Galt on Wednesday.

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He was accompanied by a representative of the bank that had foreclosed on the home, the Sacramento sheriff’s department said.

Corey, who had been evicted from the home the day before, answered their knock with a shotgun blast through the door, sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Jason Ramos said in a press release.

The shot hit the animal control officer in the upper body, Ramos said.

The officer, whose name is being withheld while officials notify his family, was pronounced dead at the scene, and Corey held police at bay in a standoff that lasted several hours, Ramos said.

Corey was arrested at about 5 a.m. Thursday, Ramos said.