Police: Man Pressure Washed Two Caged Dogs

OCTOBER 11--An Oklahoma man is facing a felony animal cruelty charge after police spotted him using a pressure washer to clean two caged dogs who were “cowering in fear,” according to court records.

A patrolman was dispatched last Monday to a car wash in Comanche after a passerby called 911 to report that some animals were “possibly being sprayed with the pressure washer.”

Upon arriving at Brown’s Car Wash at 12:20 AM, the cop spotted a pickup truck “inside one of the washing stalls.” Stacked in the truck bed were a pair of animal kennels, one of which contained a Chihuahua, while the other held a puppy.

As the officer drove up, Patrick Schultz, 51, began spraying the dogs “with the sprayer nozzle on the high pressure rinse setting,” according to a probable cause affidavit. “Both animals were cowering in fear as the nozzle went over them, the tip of the nozzle was only about 1 foot away from each animal as it passed.”

The pressurized water, the officer stated, was strong enough to “injure either one of the dogs,” though the “small Chihuahua mix was especially vulnerable to the power of the pressure nozzle.”  

The cop exited his squad car and began yelling at Schultz (pictured above) to stop spraying the dogs. The officer, who recognized Schultz and recalled that the suspect was hearing impaired, then went to the control panel and “shut the water off from the selector switch.”

A “very agitated” Schultz then turned the water back on, only to have it shut again by the patrolman. Schultz turned the water on a second time, which prompted the cop to shut it again and reach for his handcuffs. With arrest looming, Schultz “dropped the pressure nozzle” and “tried to hide behind” his girlfriend Velvette Skaggs.

After taking Schultz into custody, the officer explained that “he could not bathe his dog at a ‘Car Wash’ with a pressure washer,” the affidavit states. Schultz’s response “was that he was from California and he didn’t know any better.”

The dogs were seized by police and transported to a local animal hospital.

Schultz, now free on bond, was charged with animal cruelty, a felony carrying a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of up to $5000. (3 pages)