DOG FIGHT LEADS TO ARREST

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10633774&BRD=1994&PAG=461&de...id=3413

DOG FIGHT LEADS TO ARREST,
CONFLICTING STORIES




By: KRISTI FLIPPIN, Staff Writer December 08, 2003




MINEOLA - A woman who pleaded with police not to shoot her Rotweilers,
one of which was a police patrol dog, was arrested Saturday by Mineola
police on a charge of interfering with a public servant.
Police discounted the woman's story; saying she shoved an officer who
was attempting to intervene on what he thought was a vicious dog fight.

When Sandy Gatlin, 26, got home from the Mineola Christmas parade, she
let her 9-year-old male dog, Rowdy, out of her house into the front yard to
"use the bathroom."

"He never runs away and just stays in my yard," she said.

Her 3-year-old male outside dog, Rocky, got out of his pen in the back
yard of her residence on Kilpatrick Street and came running around the house
toward Mrs. Gatlin.

"I would have never let Rowdy out if I had known Rocky was loose," she
said. "Rowdy immediately grabbed Rocky by the neck, because he is very
protective and probably thought Rocky was going to attack me."

The Mineola police drove by her house about that time and Mrs.
Gatlin's neighbor, Wanda Holmes, waved to the cops for them to help her get
the two apart.

Mrs. Gatlin said about five officers formed a semicircle around the
dogs and sprayed them with pepper spray.

When the pepper spray didn't seem to work, a patrol sergeant asked
someone to get his shotgun.

"He said he would shoot a warning shot and then I said 'don't shoot my
dogs!'" Mrs. Gatlin said. "Then he said, 'this is my city and I don't want
dangerous animals in it."

The dogs crossed the street to a gas station parking lot. Rowdy
continued to hold onto Rocky.

The police backed off and Mrs. Gatlin had a chance to tell Rowdy to
"release," and he obeyed.

"I just wanted someone to hold Rocky while I told Rowdy to release,"
she said.

The dogs left each other alone and Rocky was put in a police car.

Mrs. Gatlin said the sergeant then told the other officers, "If you
get a shot on that other dog, take him out."

Again Mrs. Gatlin pleaded for her dog not to be shot. She called for
Rowdy, he came to her and she put him in a different police car.

Gatlin was then arrested for interfering. She said she watched the
officers pet her dogs through the car windows and the dogs were calm.

Mineola Police Chief Jason Shanks arrived on the scene and told Mrs.
Gatlin she was being arrested because she pushed the sergeant out of the way
when he raised his gun.

Mrs. Gatlin denies even being close to the sergeant.

"I just tried to do what the officers told me to do," she said. "I
didn't want to get in trouble."

A neighbor, who watched the incident unfold, agrees with Mrs. Gatlin.

"I never saw her touch a cop and if I need to, I will swear to it in
court," Henry Copeland said.

Mrs. Gatlin claims Rowdy was a trained patrol dog with her husband,
Henry Askew, former police chief of Alba. Askew said Rowdy is trained to be
protective of his master and to hold onto something until he is told to
release.

"They are trying to make him out as vicious," Askew said. "He was just
doing what he was trained to do."

Mrs. Gatlin, who is an assistant at Lake Country Animal Clinic in
Mineola, said she found Rocky at a local store and he had been living in her
backyard since March. The dogs never saw each other and she said she was
looking for a home for Rocky.

"We've had Rowdy since he was 6 weeks old," she said. "And he lives in
the house with my 2-year-old daughter and my cat. He is not a dangerous
animal. He was just being protective of me."

The police took the dogs to the animal shelter because Shanks declared
the dogs dangerous.

Askew disagrees, saying a dangerous dog would attack when unprovoked.

"Rowdy was not unprovoked." Askew said. "He saw another dog coming at
my wife and he was just trying to protect her."

Mrs. Gatlin was released from jail Sunday on $750 bond.

She wanted a veterinarian to check out her dogs, but the police would
not allow it.

"We decontaminated them by spraying them with water and we knew they
were in good care," Shanks said. Askew said the police were not doctors and
could not diagnose animals.

Monday, the dogs were taken to "a vet of their picking and at their
expense," Shanks said.

He also said he explained to Mrs. Gatlin that she has 10 days to
request a hearing and a judge would determine if her dogs were dangerous
animals.

If they prove to be dangerous, Mineola's animal ordinance states an
owner would have to "obtain liability insurance coverage or show financial
responsibility in an amount of at least $100,000" for each animal.

"Rowdy sleeps by my baby's bed, lets my daughter ride on his back and
he is friendly with everyone," Mrs. Gatlin said. "I feel so bad because my
daughter has been asking for him all day."

Shanks said, "My officers followed the book."



--
Ban Fighting Dogs

Advise Your Local Politician

No One Else Needs To Be Hurt !


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