CAPE CORAL, Fla. — A woman was arrested and charged with pepper-spraying multiple dogs at a Cape Coral Rotary Dog park.
Dog owners who frequently go to that park call it "completely disturbing."
Watch Fort Myers Community Correspondent Miyoshi Price's report:
They told FOX 4 they still couldn't believe what police say happened at the park on Saturday.
"That's absolutely disgusting. I can't even imagine a human being doing that to an animal," said Gail Orlowski, a dog owner who wasn't present during the incident but expressed strong feelings about it.
Cape Coral Police say Charlene Tedesco was walking outside the dog park's fence at Rotary Park when she sprayed dogs that approached the fence.
"One of the owners of the dogs actually said that their dog was sprayed in the face and was crying and yelping and trying to rub their face in the dirt," said Lisa Greenberg, Public Affairs Officer with the Cape Coral Police Department.
When FOX 4's Community Correspondent Miyoshi Price visited Tedesco's home to get her side of the story, Tedesco claimed she was protecting herself and her dog. She expressed concern that dogs could jump over the fence and said she's been attacked by dogs at that park before, a few months ago.
Tedesco told FOX 4 she only sprayed at the dogs' feet, but police reports indicate multiple dogs were sprayed, and one had more direct contact.
"Some witnesses told us that this had actually happened before in the past, that this woman had come to the park before on multiple different occasions and used pepper spray on the dogs," Greenberg said. She continued saying in this case that is all hearsay and there were no reports of those claims.
Tedesco is currently facing a misdemeanor charge for animal cruelty.
The incident has put dog owners like Orlowski on alert.
"It's a warning with someone walking by the fence like that, so we're going to be a little more careful," Orlowski said.
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