Katie Brown with her dog (image from Brown's Facebook)
Katie Brown with her dog (image from Brown’s Facebook)

A woman in South Daytona, Florida got fed up with her dog’s constant barking. Her solution? Duct tape his mouth shut. She then compounded her cruelty by posting a picture of her dog online–and got deservedly shredded by the Facebook community. Now police want to have a not-so-friendly chat with her.

On Friday morning, Katie Brown posted a picture of her chocolate Labrador retriever to her Facebook page. She’d wound duct tape around his muzzle to keep him from barking so much. The caption read:

“This is what happens when you dont shut up!!!!”

By Saturday afternoon, the picture had been shared some 238,000 times. Apparently Brown was feeling the heat herself, judging by these posts on her wall:
Katie Brown FB

The picture was no longer publicly available by Sunday night. But by then, the damage had already been done. Before the weekend was out, at least two parody Facebook pages of Brown had been created, and Brown had been shredded up and down on Facebook and Twitter.

South Daytona police and the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office were bombarded with calls, emails, and Facebook messages about Brown over the weekend. Sheriff’s spokesman Andrew Gant says that his department’s phones were ringing off the hook almost nonstop from Friday night onward. Indeed, the response has been so overwhelming that South Daytona police chief Ron Wright actually wants people to stop calling because it’s slowing down what is a very active investigation that spans two states.

Brown claims to be a self-employed woman from South Daytona, though it can be safely assumed that her business is shredded along with her own personal repuation. However, investigators there got a tip that Brown may have been living in Avon, Connecticut–near her alma mater, Central Connecticut State University–at the time of the incident. However, Avon police chief Mark Rinaldo says that his department’s own investigation revealed that the abuse didn’t take place in his town, and that both Brown and the dog live somewhere in Florida.

It’s not clear where in Florida Brown is living at this point. According to South Daytona police, Brown’s house in South Daytona is under “code enforcement action.” As near as can be determined, though, the dog is safe and sound.

Brown was supposed to get in touch with South Daytona police on Sunday, but police haven’t heard from her as of Monday afternoon. Wright has a message for Brown–come to the nearest police station so authorities can make doubly sure the dog is all right. If police do decide to charge Brown, she could face up to five years in prison, and may be required to undergo counseling or an anger management program. Given her unrepentant attitude on Facebook, I’d be surprised if Brown wasn’t charged for this.

Brown says that she only had the duct tape on her dog’s mouth for a minute. So far, this is proving to be the most expensive minute of her life. Her reputation and business are shredded, she will almost certainly have her dog taken from her, and she could potentially go to prison for five years. This is yet another reminder to be really, really careful before you hit the “Post” or “Upload” button. If anyone who knows Brown is reading this, do the right thing. Tell her to turn herself in, and/or call the police.

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