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Pit bull ordered to attack Person animal control officer
herald sun ^ | 8/21/03

Posted on 08/21/2003 10:44:00 AM PDT by knak

ROXBORO -- Two people lured a Person County Animal Control officer to a rural road earlier this week and then ordered a pit bull to attack her, officials said Wednesday.

The officer, Patsy Ann Bryant, was treated at Person County Memorial Hospital after the attack Tuesday and was released the same day, said Capt. Calvin B. Clayton, of the Person County Sheriff's Office.

"She's pretty shaken up," Clayton said, declining to describe the severity of Bryant's wounds, except to say she received stitches.

Meanwhile, sheriff's deputies arrested a man Wednesday who has one dogfighting conviction on his record and who is awaiting trial on another dogfighting charge, as well as a charge of intimidating a witness in the case. Bryant is the officer who brought the most recent dogfighting charge against the man, 39-year-old Michael E. Dowdell.

Dowdell has not been charged in Tuesday's apparent ambush.

Clayton said the attack came after the Animal Control Department received a call about a dog that had been hit by a car in Hurdle Mills. Bryant responded to the call and found a vehicle with two people sitting in it.

When Bryant approached the car, one of the occupants "gave an attack signal to the dog, and the dog attacked her," Clayton said.

"It was a bogus call," Clayton said. "It appears as if [the attack] was a setup at this time."

Authorities arrested Dowdell on Tuesday on the witness-intimidation charge -- a felony -- but Person County Magistrate Herman Gentry released him on an unsecured $5,000 bond. Clayton said Gentry released Dowdell on Tuesday afternoon before the attack on Bryant took place.

Clayton said deputies questioned Dowdell late Tuesday about the attack and called him a "person of interest," although he stopped short of calling Dowdell a suspect.

Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith ordered Dowdell's arrest Wednesday after officials and the witness whom Dowdell is accused of threatening complained about the low bond he received Tuesday. Dowdell, whose address was unavailable, will appear in Smith's courtroom for a bond hearing at 2 p.m. today in the Person County Courthouse.

Smith is expected to raise Dowdell's bond during the hearing. But Dowdell's attorney, Danny Long Jr., said he would fight the attempt to increase his client's bond.

Dowdell was indicted in February on felony dogfighting and animal-cruelty charges. Bryant is listed as the complaining officer, according to court records.

Deputies and animal control officers raided Dowdell's Tobacco Road residence on Jan. 27 and found 12 pit bulls chained to the axles of automobiles. They also found dogfighting publications and equipment used for training and harboring dogs for fighting, including small treadmills and veterinary medical supplies, such as syringes, steroids, pain killers and intravenous fluid bags.

After he posted an unspecified amount of bond in April, Dowdell spoke at length with The Herald-Sun about the charges and vehemently denied he was training the dogs to fight. He said he used the treadmills to strengthen the dogs for "dog pull" competitions, which are essentially strong-man competitions for canines. Dowdell said his mother, who runs a large kennel in Florida, taught him how to nurse his pit bulls back to health whenever they got into scrapes with each other.

Asked about his 1997 conviction for dogfighting, Dowdell swore those days were long gone.

"I'm a changed man," Dowdell said during the April interview.

Dowdell's arrest Tuesday morning was in connection with an intimidating letter written to his ex-girlfriend, 36-year-old Shawn Cannada, in June. Cannada, who went by the name Shawn Andres before she was recently married, is set to testify against Dowdell on the dogfighting charge.

The two lived with each other for several years and have three children, Cannada told The Herald-Sun on Wednesday. Their children are in the custody of Orange County Social Services, she said.

Court records show Cannada obtained a domestic violence protective order against Dowdell on April 29 in Orange County District Court.

Court records also show that Dowdell filed misdemeanor trespass and communicating threats charges against Cannada in January. Those charges were voluntarily dismissed in Orange County District Court on May 6.

Dowdell was charged with communicating threats and violating the protective violence order on July 11. He faces a Sept. 8 court date on those charges.

"I fear for my life," Cannada told The Herald-Sun on Wednesday.

Person-Caswell District Attorney Joel Brewer did not return phone messages Wednesday. Bryant could not be reached for comment.

Dowdell has pleaded not guilty to the dogfighting and animal cruelty charges and is set for trial on those charges Sept. 22.

His 1997 arrest was before state lawmakers made dogfighting a felony. Dowdell pleaded guilty to one count of misdemeanor dogfighting, paid $500 in fines and was given a 45-day suspended sentence. He also agreed not to own any pit bulls for one year.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: deathtopitbulls; dogofpeace; jawson4legs; landshark; pitmanmeanssmall
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no words to describe some people
1 posted on 08/21/2003 10:44:01 AM PDT by knak
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To: knak
no words to describe some people

Yes there are...they are "convicted felon", which is what he'll be called from now on.

2 posted on 08/21/2003 10:50:19 AM PDT by WestPacSailor (Klaatu barata nikto.)
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To: knak
It's morons like this that give my dog a bad name. I should be allowed to smack him upside the head for every time someone has run in fear from my APBT/Staff mix.
3 posted on 08/21/2003 10:50:23 AM PDT by EBUCK (FIRE!....rounds downrange! http://www.azfire.org)
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To: knak
Dog of Peace alert

We apologize for the inconvenience

4 posted on 08/21/2003 10:50:51 AM PDT by thoughtomator (Are we conservatives, or are we Republicans?)
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To: knak
Roxboro, ????? where ...The morons who ordered the dog attack on the animal control officer should spend the rest of their miserable lives in solitary! PERIOD!
5 posted on 08/21/2003 10:51:42 AM PDT by kellynla ("C" 1/5 1st Mar. Div. An Hoa, Viet Nam '69 & '70 Semper Fi)
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To: WestPacSailor
And after "convicted felon", they will call him "Florida voter".
6 posted on 08/21/2003 10:55:50 AM PDT by Bluegrass Federalist
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Comment #7 Removed by Moderator

To: knak
Dowdell's Tobacco Road residence

This is just too funny.

8 posted on 08/21/2003 10:57:42 AM PDT by Tijeras_Slim (Official New Mexican Disruptor of the Lone Star Chat Thread)
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To: knak
The guy is a psycho he uses dogs as weapons
He may as well run over her with his truck
In this case the "tool" he decided to use was a dog
this psycho should be euthanized
9 posted on 08/21/2003 11:30:20 AM PDT by joesnuffy (Moderate Islam Is For Dilettantes)
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To: kellynla
North Carolina. Near the Virginia line. North of Durham, NC.

I have lived near there all my life. I am not surprised by this. Some dang crazy folks live over there!

I hope they lock him up in a cell with Bubba, the 400 pound horny-dog gangsta whose conjugal visits were rescinded 5 years ago.

Working for a Veterinarian many years ago, I learned this was the only breed the vet "feared" when brought in. Of course owners are the biggest reason for any breed of dog going "bad", but with this breed, according to him, you never knew when they might snap. Quite aggressive by nature. I know many good owners of these dogs, but even they are reluctant to call them "safe" and rarely do they let anyone near the dogs without them being there. None will let kids around them.
10 posted on 08/21/2003 11:59:15 AM PDT by Littlejon
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To: EBUCK
*yawn*

Who should I believe, you of the big red font, or my own lyin' eyes?
11 posted on 08/21/2003 12:07:26 PM PDT by thoughtomator (Are we conservatives, or are we Republicans?)
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To: Littlejon
I am glad you pointed out that the owners of dogs are responsible their behavior. Dogs are only as good as their owners. Show me a bag dog and I will show you an irresponsible owner. And these despicable excuses for human beings should be locked up for life!
12 posted on 08/21/2003 12:10:54 PM PDT by kellynla ("C" 1/5 1st Mar. Div. An Hoa, Viet Nam '69 & '70 Semper Fi)
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To: Littlejon
I live in Roxboro and have been here all my life. He's another one of those transplants ruining this part of the country.
13 posted on 08/21/2003 12:11:24 PM PDT by mtbrandon49
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To: knak
It's such a poorly written article that I might have missed this, but couldn't they now charge him with attempted murder?
14 posted on 08/21/2003 12:14:12 PM PDT by savedbygrace
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To: thoughtomator
Or you could just continue to believe what you are told by sensationalist journalism. Interesting points....LINK
15 posted on 08/21/2003 12:19:27 PM PDT by EBUCK (FIRE!....rounds downrange! http://www.azfire.org)
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To: EBUCK
I couldn't give two squats about what journalism has to say.

I have yet to see a pit bull that wasn't implicitly being wielded by its owner as a weapon. And really, there is no other honest reason to own one. And as I live in Manhattan, I've seen a lot of them.

So you with the one possibly-non-deranged pit bull in existence in your backyard can huff and puff till you turn purple, but it doesn't change the truth.
16 posted on 08/21/2003 12:22:08 PM PDT by thoughtomator (Are we conservatives, or are we Republicans?)
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To: mtbrandon49
I have relatives in Roxboro & my pastor lived there for 15 years. I have hunted there for many years. Lots of good folks there, but , like in Rockingham County, where I am from, there ARE some dang loonie people in some parts of the county! :)

Of course, you may be right in that he is probably a transplant! ;)
17 posted on 08/21/2003 12:30:09 PM PDT by Littlejon
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To: EBUCK
Interesting indeed that the article titled 'dog bite statistics' doesn't present any statistics to validate any of the claims made therein. In fact, some of the claims in that article I know for sure to be false, for example the assertion that no breed is more likely to turn vicious and bite than any other. In that it counts only fatalities, the comparisons between that and lightning strikes is a strawman; most dog attacks result in injuries but not death, but the same cannot be said to be true of lightning strikes.

Check out the statistics that are broken down by breed, and you will see that the pit bull is far and away the most likely breed to attack a human being, and that the results of these attacks are more injurious on average than that of the average dog bite attack.
18 posted on 08/21/2003 12:32:43 PM PDT by thoughtomator (Are we conservatives, or are we Republicans?)
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To: WestPacSailor
Two words: concealed carry
19 posted on 08/21/2003 12:33:26 PM PDT by manic4organic (An organic conservative)
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To: thoughtomator
I have yet to see a pit bull that wasn't implicitly being wielded by its owner as a weapon.

You a shut in? I ask because you obviously don't get out much. These dogs have been around since out country was first immigrated to. Teddy Rosevelt owned an APBT, took it with him all the time, you know to bite foriegn dignitaries and such when it was out of control.

And as I live in Manhattan, I've seen a lot of them.

So living in Manhattan makes you what...the all seeing, all knowing, judge of something like 4 million dogs? You sir, are high.

So you with the one possibly-non-deranged pit bull in existence in your backyard can huff and puff till you turn purple, but it doesn't change the truth.

LOL, the truth is that more people are bitten by Jack Russel Terriers than by Pit Bulls, hell, more people are bitten by humans than by all dog breeds combined.

20 posted on 08/21/2003 12:44:08 PM PDT by EBUCK (FIRE!....rounds downrange! http://www.azfire.org)
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