I sent the following email to Senator Specter. This tears up my heart, and fills me with hate for the Arnolds. I am also going to alert as many people as I can to this, to also write emails. If they start getting pleas from all over the world (as I'm sure they already are) they might back down and realise what a travesty this is.
Hi there,
I am writing to you from Perth in Western Australia. The events surrounding the arrest and trial of Tammy Grimes have made it to this little city, the most isolated in the world.
I and many of my friends are appalled and horrified by the situation surrounding the dog Doogie, the failure of your Animal Control to respond to repeated calls to rescue the dog, and the failure of the local police to bring charges against the Arnolds.
This dog has been veterinarian-certified to have been neglected and abused to the point of near-death. Neighbours of the Arnolds called Animal Control upon more than one occasion, and their calls fell on deaf ears. The proper avenues were exhausted BEFORE Ms Grimes became involved, and after her involvement, despite proof from a number of qualified sources, video and photographic evidence of neglect, abuse and extreme distress of the dog (including new evidence to show how much of a change for the better this dog has undergone since it’s removal from the home of the Arnolds) she continues to be persecuted and is now being prosecuted.
It seems to me now to be a matter of pride with the local authorities, who cannot be blind to the fact that they were disastrously wrong in this case, and are clinging tenaciously to the thin thread of an excuse that the dog was removed without permission from the property. The property, might I add, where it was found languishing tied to the end of a chain, unable to reach the filthy water that was left for it, and even if it had been in reach, unable even to stand up due to the neglect suffered and the extreme pain it was in due to untreated back injury.
How can your authorities stand by and continue to be blind to the real issue here? Animals don’t have many legal rights, but the right to a healthy, pain-free and sheltered life for this dog was denied it for many years, and the idea of returning it to the home of its former torment is unthinkable.
Please, as humans it is our responsibility to protect those who cannot protect themselves – four-legged or otherwise. Don’t make a dog who finally has some hope in his life endure such circumstances again. If this happens it would have been better had he died at the end of that chain.
Forget bureaucracy, look to the facts of the case, and do the right thing for this poor dog, who never asked to be put into that hopeless situation in the first place, and should by no means be delivered back to it now.
And the Police Chief has the ***** to call her "incompetent" -- umm, fella? watch where you point that finger.
Some very excellent points were made.
