Woman sentenced for rescuing chained, dying dog

February 22, 2008: After a year and five month of litigation, animal activist Tammy Grimes was sentenced to 300 hours community service, a year’s probation and court costs of around $1700. Why? For rescuing a dog chained for three days without food and water.

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The link provides photos, video clips and information, some quite controversial, covering the last year and five months of what Tammy Grimes regards as "war for animal rights". This link is Tammy's side of the story. Her opponents claim she is profiting from publicity.

Who is right?

That is just friggin' unreal!

wtf! who the hell is the judge?! let me show him/her what justice is really like!

I would have done exactly what she did, anyone who loves animals would have.....My son did exactly the same thing....A puppy in a yard next to his friends house, in the winter, was left chained outside with no food and frozen water for two days....My son went into the yard, took the dog, and got him to the Vet. The poor puppy had so many things wrong with him, but is now 9 years old and going strong........And if he would have been caught, and the courts said he was wrong, we would have fought tooth and nail in his defense...This judge sounds like he has his head up his a$$.......

I can just imagine the backlash that this would have........ Imagine for a moment that you walk down a frozen street one cold winter morning and see a freezing dog on a leash with apparently no person home. But you think about this court case and so decide not to take any action.

Later that week you find that the dog had died of exposure and CCTV footage places you in a position to help. The owner, who had been on holidays and had not expected the freeze, sues you for cruelty to animals.

Damned if you do, and damned if you don't. This world has become so steadfast on litigation that the natural thought to help those in need is being repressed. There will be consequences one day - if not from this, then from something else.

Just my opinion, of course

~ PA

to be honest i wouldnt of even cared about the court case i would help any animal in need

ive done the same thing.. some halfwhit left their dog in a car on a hot summers day, with the window down a crack.. the poor dog was so distressed. so i smashed the window and let the dog out.
the guy was more worried about his precious car than his dog, and spat the dummy at me.. i threw a few choice words in his direction and took the dog to the vet.. he was treated for heat exhaustion and was damn lucky his insides didnt cook. the guy never showed up to claim his dog, so it was rehomed.
fair go ppl need a license if they want to own an animal, there are far too many idiots out there that have animals and dont take care of them, and let them roam free and have so many litters. dont get me started on the morons i have encountered at the vets. they are the ones that need the 'green dream'

Excellent point, couldnt have said it better myself.

Ladies and gentlemen, were only seeing HER side of the story. Everyone knows there is 3 sides to every story. Your side, my side and the correct side. I cant pass judgements or make opinions based on HER story alone. Too much information is left out here, I think its fishy, how much money do u think she recieved?

Yes, we need to find the actual news articles to see what they say to give this a more unbiased perspective. But, if we can believe the site, that dog in the picture was in terrible shape.

This is stupid.
Are we being punished for kindness?

In a few years, everyone is going to be stuck up in a hole.

I found this:

The other side of the story is that a lot of people also used the case “to try to take you down,” Grimes said.

Jake the dog, renamed Doogie by Grimes, was owned by Steven and Lori Arnold of East Freedom.

Grimes became involved when Kim Eicher, a neighbor of the Arnolds, complained to a representative of Dogs Deserve Better that Doogie was prone in the Arnolds’ yard for three days, unable to move and without food and water.

She took the dog to Altoona Veterinary Associates for treatment. The veterinarian there described Jake’s condition as a “two” on a scale of 1 to 10.

Grimes said she never intended to deprive the Arnolds of their dog, but she refused to return the dog to authorities. She insisted they investigate possible animal cruelty charges against the Arnolds.

Instead, Grimes was charged with theft and receiving stolen property.

“People can’t take the law into their own hands,” Blair County District Attorney Richard Consiglio said after the verdicts.

He has nothing against Grimes’ attempts to free dogs from chains, but “You just can’t go about it as she did.”

Consiglio said several witnesses in the case were threatened by dog-support organizations.

“If I find out who those people are, they are going to regret it,” he said.

Grimes will be sentenced Feb. 22, but Consiglio said she will not face jail time.

Sentencing guidelines recommend probation, he said.

Grimes’ attorney, Phillip O. Robertson, argued Friday that she should be found not guilty because she never intended to deprive the Arnolds of Jake, just obtain medical care for him.

The law, Consiglio said, was clear that dogs are considered personal property and there was no legal justification for taking the dog.

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I would have helped that dog too. You have no right to chain a animal up how would any human feel chained? People that see this as wrong for helping the dog just see the dog as property. It pisses me off when people treat animals like this. I would have beaten the owner to a bloody pulp too.

Actually, it depends on the chaining. We had to keep our dogs chained up, or else our neighbours would shoot them. And even with them chained up, they came over and poisoned one of them. BUT, they each had their own house, and plenty of food and water. And when we were outside, they were not chained up, it was just for overnight. The weird thing is that we kept catching the same neighbour's dogs on our property and killing our animals.

I agree with what your saying.
Although,another simple alternative would be to call the police,the pound or another form of animal shelter while you are near the dog.Tell them to immediately come to get the dog and that you will not be leaving till someone comes.If they tell you they cannot be sure when someone will turn up just say*that's ok then my next call will be to the local tv station and the paper*. Then watch how quickly someone turns up to get the dog then

I wouldn't stand for them doing that. Do you have proof their doing that to get them in trouble? I have a dog named Iggy and if anyone poisoned him there would be hell to pay. You could ask anyone I know what I would do if he was harmed I'd hunt them down and I'll leave it up to the imagination what I would do lol.

Well, the bad thing about it is that in the same state, some kids took two lambs from a guys farm and killed them. . .yet, the case was settled with the mom paying the farmer $500 and, as far as I no, the DA couldn't find reason to make any criminal charges. . .so apparently its ok to steal something and kill it, but not steal something to prevent it from dying. . .thats a bit twisted.

I would have done the same thing. . . I may have gone about it a little differently, but I definitely wouldn't have left the dog there. Its ashame some people think of animals as nothing more than property.