CALIFORNIA -- A 20-year-old Tehama County resident says the Sheriff's Department crossed the bounds into animal cruelty Tuesday morning when a deputy pepper sprayed her pit bull as the deputy was serving a civil paper at her residence.
Sheriff Dave Hencratt said a deputy was serving a civil paper at the Potter Street residence at the request of another party.
The deputy went inside a front gate, where he encountered the pit bull. After putting the paper on the door the deputy was exiting the property when the pit bull began growling.
The deputy then used pepper spray on the dog, a policy allowed by the department, Hencratt said.
Lucy Gonzalez has a different account of what happened to her black and white splotched pit bull, Flo Patches, as does at least one neighbor.
Gonzalez said her mild-mannered dog didn't even bark when the deputy arrived, which is why she didn't come to the door at first to receive the paper.
In an email to the Daily News, a neighbor, Faith Watson, said she saw the deputy appear to lean down and pet the dog as he was leaving the residence.
The dog then stood up expecting to get a scratch on the head, which caused the deputy to pull out and use the pepper spray.
Gonzalez said that's when the dog, which was not injured in the incident, started barking and also led to the deputy threatening to shoot the pit bull.
Hencratt said the department's policy allows pepper spraying an animal, because it is not a long-lasting effect and is, in effect, a natural substance.
“Our guys, myself included, err on the side of caution. We don't want to be bit,” he said.
Hencratt said, in his opinion, the deputy, who he declined to name, did nothing wrong.
Hencratt did say social media reports accounting what happened included the name of a sheriff's department employee who was not present at the incident.
Gonzalez has had the 1- year-old dog for most of Flo's life [um, that means a year] and said she is a companion animal.
She said she believes it was an example of law enforcement profiling.
“Because of her breed, he just assumed she's aggressive. That's profiling, you can't judge a dog by a breed,” Gonzalez said.
[This woman is an idiot]
On Tuesday alone the sheriff's department received nine calls about aggressive or loose dogs, according to logs.
Three of those calls were placed about pit bulls.
Gonzalez said she believes the policy allowing deputies to pepper spray animals should change in the future.
“Cats are afraid of dogs, not sheriffs,” she said.
(Red Bluff Daily News (blog) - Oct 17, 2013)
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