Katie Brown Found! Woman Who Duct Taped Dog’s Mouth Charged With Cruelty But Animals Not Removed From Home
Florida native “Katie Brown” who posted a photo to Facebook with her dog’s mouth duct taped shut has finally been tracked down by authorities in an investigation that spanned three states. The woman posted a photo to Facebook showing that she had duct-taped shut her chocolate lab-mix’s mouth in order to stop him from barking. The internet has shown its wrath to the animal owner and now, can finally breath a sigh of relief as justice will be served.
Katie Brown, as her Facebook name states, will be charged with Class 1 Misdemeanor Animal Cruelty, a crime which the Orlando Sentinel reports can merit a punishment of up to 150 days in jail if she is convicted. The search came to a close on Monday afternoon when South Daytona police contacted the officers in a town known as Cary and advised them of the whereabouts of the woman. Authorities reached her home within the hour on Monday afternoon.
The Inquisitr previously reported that the 45-year-old woman, whose public records show her real name to be either Katharine Lemansky or Katharine Plati, was originally reported to have lived in Connecticut. When arresting “Brown” on Monday, officials in Cary and the other to states worked closely and quickly together to determine jurisdiction. Her Facebook page originally had her listed as living in South Daytona, but officials verified that she had not lived in the state for over a year. After she admitted that the incident took place in Cary, charges were brought against her there, and Katie Brown is due to appear in County court on December 14.
The chocolate lab and the other dogs in Brown’s possession have not been removed from the home. Cary Police Captain Randall Rhyne, says while Lemansky’s actions were without a doubt animal cruelty, they found no other source of abuse.
“Taping the dog’s muzzle shut was a terrible decision on Ms. Lemansky’s part, and charging her with animal cruelty under North Carolina law was the right thing to do. At the same time, it’s important to also note that our animal control officers who physically examined both Brown and her litter mate found the dogs to be very well cared for, which is why we did not and could not remove them from the owner. The dogs are current on their shots, spayed, and microchipped. They are clean and well-nourished and appear to be comfortable in their surroundings. And there were no signs of injury to Brown’s muzzle, not even detectable hair loss.”
According to NBC News, the extent of the public’s outrage was felt through the enormous volumes of complaint the authorities received about Lemansky/Brown. All three states had a tremendous strain placed on their resources as they handled the case and tried to track down the woman and the dog whose mouth she had duct taped. Tens of thousands of people from around the world placed calls to the investigators. The Cary police were forced to assign seven overtime operators in order to handle the amount of people calling in. In South Daytona, call volumes escalated so much that the police had to schedule about a fifth of their workforce, who were off-duty, to help handle the calls of concern. However, their switchboard crashed over the weekend because of overload.
#KatieBrown arrested in #NorthCarolina.
Charged with #animalcruelty for taping #dog muzzle shut.
?https://t.co/UJ7Cf22P1f— ? ZE??I? ? (@loridowney3) December 1, 2015
In Brown’s native Florida, Volusia County Animal Services had to issue a public plea for callers to cease, as they could not operate under such a heavy load of messages and calls.
The photo of the chocolate lab’s duct taped mouth was posted to Facebook on Friday, November 27. Since animal cruelty is a misdemeanor charge, Katie Brown/Lemansky was free to return to her home and her animals and has not been arrested.
[Photo Courtesy of Facebook]
