Dogs found living in airline crates
Oglethorpe, GA (US)Incident Date: Monday, Sep 26, 2005
County: Oglethorpe
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged: David Watkins
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 References« GA State Animal Cruelty Map
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