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Wednesday, April 02, 2003

Dan Majors, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

You can't really blame Jeremy Gilchrist. He's only in his early 20s. He's lived his entire life in a world where dogs communicate by talking.

It started simply enough. Sandy to Little Orphan Annie. (Arf!) Lassie managing to alert the family that Timmy had fallen down the well. Snoopy thinking out loud.

The next thing you know, the television is cluttered with canines capable of conversation. Sure, they talked funny. But they talked.

Augie Doggie and Deputy Dawg. Astro, Scooby-Doo and Huckleberry Hound. Droopy, Goofy and Hong Kong Phooey. Ren and the Taco Bell Chihuahua.

About the only ones speaking the king's English were Underdog and Mr. Peabody.

So there was Jeremy Gilchrist, walking up Court Street in Athens, Ohio, with some friends at about 3 a.m. one morning in September 2001. Suddenly, he heard barking.

It was coming from Pepsie, a police dog in the back of a K-9 unit cruiser about 30 feet away.

Gilchrist decided to respond. According to police who witnessed it, he "crouched down and [began] barking" back.

Who knows why? Maybe he thought he could talk to the animals.

Maybe it was the alcohol in his system.

Anyway, the next thing he knew, Gilchrist was arrested on the misdemeanor charge of "taunting" a police dog.

An Athens County judge last year threw the case out on the basis that Gilchrist posed no threat to the animal or to public safety.

His bark was worse than his bite.

Prosecutors, however, appealed, arguing that Gilchrist "was making an effort to challenge" Pepsie and worked the dog up into a woofing frenzy.

Friday, the 4th Ohio District Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of charges. Presiding Judge David T. Evans, writing for the three-judge panel, said the arrest was based "exclusively on his barking (i.e., speech)." But the First Amendment guarantees us the freedom of speech.

And, I guess, barking.

Which should come as great comfort to Cleveland Browns fans.

Still, prosecutors are considering an appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court. They believe the law against taunting police animals is a good one. Not only does it protect the officers' dogs, but it also covers their horses.

But there's a difference between "speaking" with a dog and with a horse.

A horse is a horse.

Of course. Of course.

There's a reason we call them man's best friends

David Faidley's dog, a young German shepherd named Sergeant, was with him whenever he went on his daily walk near Laurel Hill Creek in Somerset County. And the dog was with him yesterday when searchers found Faidley dead at the bottom of a ravine he had fallen into. Sergeant still wouldn't leave him.

The dog days of summer are just another detour away

Hope you liked cruising from the Fort Duquesne Bridge to the Parkway East via that supercool high-speed connector ramp that opened four months ago. Because PennDOT has plans to close it during certain hours this summer to accommodate work on the Fort Pitt Bridge and Tunnel project.

Still, we can't just roll over and play dead, can we?

A serious budget shortfall continues to dog the city. Officials had been hoping that the state Legislature might throw them a bone, but they're having their own money problems in Harrisburg. And time is ticking away.

Speaking of Doctor Doolittle ...

Consumer columnist Lawrence Walsh is taking another day off, so there is no Post Your Problems column today.