Pet-Abuse.Com - Animal Abuse Case Details: Abuser on probation caught with dog

Abuser on probation caught with dog
Athens, GA (US)

Incident Date: Sunday, Nov 6, 2005
County: Clarke
Local Map: available
Disposition: Convicted

Abuser/Suspect: David Watkins

Case Updates: 2 update(s) available

Case ID: 6219

Classification: Other

Animal: dog (non pit-bull)

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On Nov. 6, 2005, an off-duty animal control officer saw Dave Watkins in Athens-Clarke County Library's parking lot with a dog. The officers called an on-duty animal control officer to the library and the second officer also witnessed Watkins with the dog, Animal Control Superintendent Patrick Rives said Wednesday.

That dog, now living with a friend of Watkins, was "certainly in better shape than the ones we had investigated before," Rives said.

On November 22, 2005, Chief Magistrate Judge Patricia Barron sentenced Dave Watkins of 200 Sycamore Drive, Apartment 133, to 24 hours in jail for violating a court order that barred him from owning or caring for animals for 24 months, a result of a July incident when animal control officers found 14 sick and malnourished dogs living in Watkins' Sycamore Drive apartment. He was booked into the Clarke County Jail on Tuesday afternoon.

Case Updates

An Athens man who allegedly kept his 14 dogs living in their own excrement was booked at the Clarke County Jail Tuesday morning on a single count of animal cruelty nearly a year after officers first opened an investigation.

Dave Watkins reported to the county jail at 9 a.m. Tuesday to serve the first of five three-day stints after pleading guilty Friday to an animal cruelty charge in a case dating back to July.

Athens-Clarke State Court Judge Kent Lawrence sentenced Watkins to serve five three-day stints in jail over the next five weeks and 11 months on probation.

Animal control officers began to investigate Watkins after an apartment resident on Sycamore Drive complained in July that animal urine was leaking through her ceiling. Animal control officers were called to investigate, and Watkins admitted to housing 14 dogs in crates in his apartment, according to Animal Control Superintendent Patrick Rives.

"He wouldn't let us enter, but he said there were 14 dogs in the apartment and he gave us the impression that he didn't let them out to relieve themselves," Rives said Tuesday.

While animal control officers were investigating, Watkins and the owner of the apartment complex loaded several of the dogs into a trailer and parked it in a nearby business parking lot. Animal control officers waited outside his apartment, and when Watkins returned to unload the rest of the dogs from his apartment, they intervened and confiscated the remaining animals.

The dogs were taken to a veterinarian, and one dog had to be euthanized immediately "because nothing else could be done for it," Rives said.

Because animal control didn't have enough evidence of animal cruelty to charge Watkins immediately, he was able to reclaim his dogs. When officers asked for a warrant to arrest Watkins, Magistrate Court Judge Patricia Barron banned him from owning or possessing any animals for the next 24 months.

Watkins moved the dogs out of Athens-Clarke County onto undeveloped land owned by his family in Oglethorpe County, but according to Rives, the dogs were found in the same airline crates living in their own filth and were impounded once again by animal control officers.

As a result, Watkins was arrested in Oglethorpe County Sept. 26 and charged with one count of second-degree animal cruelty and bonded out of jail the same day, according to Oglethorpe County Sheriff Mike Smith.

Then, on Nov. 22, Watkins was arrested again and charged with one count of animal cruelty when an off-duty animal control officer spotted him walking a dog in the Athens-Clarke County Library's parking lot. Possessing the dog violated requirements set by Barron; he again posted $1,200 bail and was released.

At Watkins' arraignment Jan. 19, he pleaded not guilty, but changed the plea at a hearing Friday.

The animal cruelty charge Watkins faces in Oglethorpe County still is pending, according to Oglethorpe County Magistrate Court Judge Gail Smith

Source: Online Athens - June 14, 2006
Update posted on Jun 14, 2006 - 1:08PM

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A 49-year-old Athens man pleaded not guilty in Athens-Clarke County State Court January 19, 2006 to an animal cruelty charge stemming from allegations he kept 14 sick and malnourished dogs in his Sycamore Drive apartment.
Dave Watkins originally was charged with keeping his dogs in unsanitary conditions and failure to have rabies tags, and the state animal cruelty charge came from a more extensive investigation.

The dogs lived in Watkins' River's Edge apartment in crates so soaked with urine the noxious fluids seeped through the floor and into the apartment below, according to Athens-County Animal Control officials. After the man's downstairs neighbor complained to authorities in July 2005, animal control officers confiscated the animals, six of which were eventually euthanized because they were either too ill or were unadoptable due to bad temperaments. Six of the dogs were adopted, and two were returned to Watkins by the Madison-Oglethorpe Animal Shelter. Oglethorpe authorities became involved because while Athens-Clarke animal control officers were investigating the complaint, Watkins moved nine of the 14 dogs to Oglethorpe County, where they were found in August 2005 in crates on undeveloped land owned by Watkins' family.

An Athens-Clarke Municipal Court judge ordered Watkins to pay $870 in fines for violating local animal control ordinances, of which only $205 had been paid as of January 19, 2006, a court clerk said. He has until Feb. 13, 2006 to pay the balance. When arraigned on the state animal cruelty charge, Judge Kent Lawrence ordered Watkins to return to court March 3, 2006 for trial. The crime is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in prison. Earlier this week, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to the Athens-Clarke County Solicitor General's office urging prosecutors to seek jail time and mandatory psychiatric treatment for Watkins.

Source: January 20, 2006
Update posted on Jan 24, 2006 - 8:04PM

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Online Athens - November 23, 2005

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Abuser on probation caught with dogAthens, GA (US)

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Abuser on probation caught with dog
Athens, GA (US)