Video at SLO County shelter angers animals rights activists

November 1, 2016

Video footage of a San Luis Obispo County Animal Services volunteer swinging a plastic chair at a pit bull has prompted outrage from animal rights activists. SLO County Animal Services officials are investigating the incident, though they do not suspect any wrongdoing and are defending the actions of the volunteer.

Last Tuesday, a Ventura County woman whose first name is Jen was assessing a dog at SLO County Animal Services. While filming the dog, she noticed that a couple kennels over a man was swinging a plastic lawn chair at a pit bull. Jen briefly filmed the volunteer who was saying,”knock it off,” while swinging the chair at the dog.

The chair does not make contact with the dog during the video. But during the clip, a woman can be heard saying the man is hitting the dog.

“The guy over there is acting like a dick. He is hitting a dog with a chair,” the woman said.

Animal rights groups have since posted synopses of the incident in which they quote Jen as saying the man was hitting the dog.

“I kept hearing this guy yell (he was not yelling commands like a trainer might; he was yelling as if he was involved in a bar fight), and I finally looked up with my camera and caught him doing this with a chair,” Jen stated. “He hit the dog with a plastic chair. He seemed to be trying to block him, which was totally unnecessary because, as I said, the dog was not with any other dogs, and he was only barking through the chain link, not aggressively in my opinion. After he did this, he placed a slip leash on the dog and yanked him off the ground, still yelling and took him out of the play yard.”

Eric Anderson, the division manager of SLO County Animal Services, said an investigation into the incident is ongoing. But, Anderson did not see anything in the video that would qualify as abuse or warrant filing charges, he said. [KSBY]

Animal services officials are still looking to see that there was not anything that was physically abusive or truly harmful, Anderson said.

The pit bull had arrived at the shelter two days prior to the incident, and the animal was known to have aggressive interactions with other dogs and people. The pit bull showed dominant and reactive behavior toward other dogs across the fence lines, Anderson said.

Additionally, Anderson said the volunteer may have used the chair so that he would not be put in danger. The volunteer has been donating time to SLO County Animal Services for 15 years, Anderson said.

The investigation is expected to be completed in the next two days.