Breaking the Chains That Bind
One woman, one dog and a website helps chained dogs around the world.
By Olivia LaBarre
December 2007
Since he was a puppy, a black lab mix lived chained for years to a post outside his owner’s house in Tipton, Pennsylvania. Although the dog received food and water, he was deprived of elements essential to his physical and psychological well-being, such as freedom, exercise and affection. When Tammy Grimes bought a house in August 1995 just up the road from where the black lab mix lived, she couldn’t help but notice the chained dog. Grimes became increasingly concerned and distraught over the dog’s condition as she drove by every day, muttering to herself, “dogs deserve better.”
Grimes soon decided to give the chained dog some of the affection he was lacking by visiting him regularly and found out that sadly, the dog’s name reflected the way in which he was treated: Worthless. “I became obsessed with him,” she says. “I would pet him all the time and I eventually asked the owners if I could have him. They said no and asked me to stop coming around, but he was just always on my mind. Then I started thinking, ‘I’m sure I’m not the only one who sees a problem with this.’ That’s when I decided to take action and do something about it.”
And so, on her own and with no prior experience as an activist in the animal welfare industry, Grimes started Dogs Deserve Better, a nonprofit organization dedicated to freeing chained dogs and bringing them into homes with families. After Grimes made the organization official and put up a website in August 2002, she found that her theory was correct—she was certainly not the only person who wanted to take a stand against the treatment of chained dogs like Worthless. “I put up a website and then people started coming to me,” says Grimes. “Someone would come to me and say, ‘I’d like to represent you here,’ so that’s how our area reps program got started…and it just grew from there.”
Even as Grimes was busy getting Dogs Deserve Better (DDB) off the ground, she couldn’t get Worthless out of her mind—and she was determined to help him. “After I formed the organization, I went back up again and asked for him,” recalls Grimes, “and the owner said ‘Take him. He’s old anyway, and my daughter doesn’t feed him.’” So on October 23, 2002, Grimes freed the dog from his chain, renamed him Bo and welcomed him into her home. Since the only life that Bo knew for about 10 years was at the end of a chain, Grimes had to work hard to help him adjust to social interaction and living in a home. Bo did so well that he quickly became the spokesdog for DDB, accompanying Grimes to the organization’s educational booths and events, and providing hope for chained dogs everywhere.
Although Bo passed away in April 2003 due to health problems, Grimes still tells his story in order to inspire people to help the many dogs throughout the world that are still treated as worthless creatures. These dogs are forced to live chained outside to stationary objects with limited or no affection from humans, deprived of the freedom to move more than a radius of a few feet, and forced to bear the elements of nature with little or no relief. Because these dogs are always outside, unable to move freely and often pulling on their chains, they usually develop health conditions such as bone spurs, sores under the collar, and much worse. Sadly, these health conditions often go unnoticed since owners don’t have regular interaction with their chained dogs, and in turn, the dogs experience even more unnecessary suffering.
Since dogs are naturally pack animals, they thrive on interaction with people and other animals. The psychological damage that chained dogs suffer, whether they’re chained in one spot for hours, days, months, or years, is not only unhealthy for the dogs, but it also leads to dangerous situations for a passersby. When they’re deprived of social interaction and continuously chained, dogs often become unhappy, neurotic, anxious and aggressive. According to a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control, dogs chained in yards are 2.8 times more likely to bite people than unchained dogs, and many victims of these attacks are children who are unaware of the chained dogs’ presence until it’s too late.
Over the past five years, Grimes has strived to increase awareness and educate people everywhere about the prevalence and dangers of dog chaining—and through her organization, she’s succeeding. DDB has grown immensely during its short existence: “We have about 151 area reps in 36 states. Plus, we have some in France and the provinces of Canada” says Grimes. “We also have a lot of contact volunteers. Our online community is about 5,000 people and our regular newsletter goes out to about 6,000 people.” These volunteers have increased public awareness of dog chaining by running educational booths, passing out educational brochures and flyering in their communities.
They also approach the owners of chained dogs to try and convince them to take their pets off their chains—a tricky task that requires an enormous amount of determination, as Grimes found out early on from her encounters with Bo’s owners. After DDB reps are informed of chained dogs in their area, they usually start out by presenting the dog owners with educational brochures about the dangers of chaining dogs. Reps then let the owners know about the resources that DDB and other organizations provide to help them and their dogs, including low-cost fencing and housetraining. If the owners are unwilling to bring their dogs inside, then many reps offer to foster the dogs until they find them permanent homes. “Last year, about 300 or more chained dogs were fostered by area reps,” says Grimes.
In addition to its everyday efforts to save one dog at a time, DDB fights for anti-chaining legislation throughout the United States. The organization also heads two major annual awareness events: The 4th of July Chain-Off and Have a Heart for Chained Dogs Week. The Chain-Off started in August 2003 with DDB simply asking owners of chained dogs to let their pets off of their chains for at least one day. In 2004, the organization decided to start holding the awareness event every Independence Day to correlate the efforts to free chained dogs with the American fight for freedom.
Grimes also helped take the Chain-Off event to a new level in its second year by chaining herself to doghouses in three different locations throughout State College, Pennsylvania for a total of 33 hours from July 3 to 4. “I always wanted to chain myself to a doghouse to put myself in the place of the dog,” says Grimes, “but it took me a couple of years to follow through with the idea, to get past my fear of doing it.” As a result of Grimes’ chaining, several media outlets covered the Chain-Off, helping to further increase awareness about the dangers of chaining dogs—the main purpose of the event. The event continued to grow in 2005, when four other people in Indiana, Pennsylvania and Virginia chained themselves to doghouses to increase national awareness of the dog-chaining problem.
“I’d say that this year has been our most successful year to date,” says Grimes. “We went with a more grassroots approach and tried to get at least one person in each state to participate. I believe we got 108 people from 36 states. And they just chained themselves in their own backyards or they did small demonstrations, but most of them got press and there was a very positive outcome.” Part of this positive outcome is that the people who chain themselves for the event are able to sympathize with chained dogs, if only for a few hours. “It really does give participants a taste of what the chained dogs’ lives are like for a day,” says Grimes. “There were 15 of us in Atlanta, and one of those girls said it so perfectly: ‘We have an end and they don’t.’ I committed to 30 or so hours, but even if you decide, ‘I’m not doing this anymore,’ then you can just unhook yourself and walk away. But the dogs don’t have that kind of choice.”
Also since 2003, DDB has declared the week in which Valentine’s Day occurs, Have a Heart for Chained Dogs Week. Each year, in preparation for the awareness campaign, the organization enlists the help of a variety of groups—mostly schools and youth organizations—to make Valentines for chained dogs. In order to make the Valentines, children learn about the dangers of chaining dogs, which instill compassion and awareness that Grimes hopes will make them less likely to chain dogs in their adult years. Some Valentines are hand-delivered, but many of the cards are sent to DDB offices, where they’re paired with addresses provided by regional reps and contacts.
The Valentines are mailed out in time to arrive for the chained dogs during the week of February 14, along with DDB brochures that contain information about the dangers of chaining dogs and the services available to help chained dogs and their owners. DDB hand-delivered and mailed about 200 Valentines during the campaign’s debut, and by 2007, the number of cards delivered increased to 7,232. “Have a Heart, just like everything else we’ve done, started small and has been growing ever since,” says Grimes. “For 2008, our goal is to mail 10,000 Valentines to chained dogs.”
DDB typically receives a lot of response from the Have a Heart for Chained Dogs campaign. “Not all of it is good,” says Grimes. “We usually don’t answer the phone for about a week after the Valentines would arrive at the houses because it can get really ugly.” Typical negative responses to the campaign run the gamut from people simply telling DDB to mind their own business to threats of harassment lawsuits. “You really have to get a tough skin and just do it anyway,” says Grimes. “But we have enough success that we manage to survive the negative feedback we get.” Thankfully, some people want help placing their dogs, some ask for help with fencing and others ask for advice on housetraining as a result of the campaign.
Because of its Internet networking, awareness campaigns, and plain old dedication and hard work, DDB has garnered an impressive amount of much-needed attention from the media and other animal welfare organizations. DDB has also received backing from celebrities, such as Johnny Depp, Jack Hanna and Robin Williams, and others who have donated signed dog collars and photographs for the organization’s “Celebrity Collars for Dollars” auction and fundraiser last July.
As DDB achieves more success, the organization is also met with more challenges. “There are a lot of chained dogs that we end up not finding places for because we just don’t have enough foster homes,” says Grimes. “That’s something that every rescue group struggles with and we’re no different. We’re always looking for foster homes.” But the newest—and probably the most difficult—challenge that Grimes and the organization is facing is quite different from the norm, and it all began on the morning of September 11, 2006.
According to Grimes, she received a call that Monday morning from a woman named Kim Eicher, who was very concerned about her neighbors’ chained dog in East Freedom, Pennsylvania. Eicher told DDB that the 19-year-old German shepherd mix was lying in the mud and hadn’t been moving for three days—and the owners weren’t around. (We haven’t been able to confirm the location of the owners during Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday, but the police confirm that they were at work and school on Monday.)
“When she called us on Monday morning we told her that we aren’t law officers, and she needed to call a Humane Officer,” says Grimes. But Eicher told DDB that she had been calling the Central Pennsylvania Humane Society (CPHS) since Saturday and had left messages with detailed information; and at one point, she had even tried calling 911, but they had also directed her to the Humane Society instead of alerting the police department. Grimes’ hands were tied—she stayed put in her office and hoped that the Humane Society would soon respond to the neighbors’ pleas for help.
Later that morning, Grimes received a call from another concerned neighbor. “When the other lady called about the dog then I realized that it must have been a pretty serious situation,” says Grimes. At that point, DDB called Eicher to see if anyone from the Humane Society had responded or come out to see the dog, and when Eicher told them that they hadn’t, Grimes decided to go see the dog and assess the situation. “I can’t call the Humane Society unless it’s a situation that I see myself, because I can’t make a report on a dog unless I’m a witness,” explains Grimes.
“Well, by the time I see the dog I know it has been lying on the ground for three days, and I don’t think it has much longer to live. There wasn’t time to go call the Humane Society officer and think, ‘maybe he’s going to show up this time.’ It just wasn’t an option. To me, that dog needed help that second in order to survive.” Dave Hopkins, Director of Public Relations for CPHS, says that the Humane Society Officer on duty that day, Paul Gotshall, was “busy handling a dangerous dog case with the State Dog Warden.” CPHS didn’t respond to Eicher’s previous pleas because they do not send anyone to investigate calls during the weekend.
Right away, Grimes was sure to document the dog’s poor condition with photos and video. “I’ve been doing this for a while now,” says Grimes, “so any time we go to see a dog, even if someone gives up a dog to me, I take photos, at least; that’s a pretty standard procedure. And even before we went there that day, we had two calls, so there was no way that I wasn’t going to take video.” The disturbing video, which can be viewed on YouTube and the DDB website, depicts the dog—who Grimes dubbed Doogie—chained and lying in the mud, weakly flailing its legs in a likely effort to simply stand up.
Next, Grimes quickly decided to take Doogie to receive medical attention. “I wouldn’t be a leader if I left that dog, because I’d be putting my own hide before the safety of the dog,” Grimes says. That’s not what a leader does.” Grimes recalls that as soon as she arrived at a local veterinary clinic with Doogie, CPHS Officer Gotshall met her there. Hopkins says that the meeting happened by chance: As Gotshall drove away from his previous case he saw Grimes outside the veterinary clinic with Doogie; he had received Eicher’s message earlier and was aware of the dog’s situation, so he pulled over to investigate.
Grimes maintains that she offered up Doogie to Gotshall, but he refused to take him and instead told her to get the dog the care that he needed and to call him on his cell phone when they were finished. Hopkins claims that Humane Officer Gotshall could not have legally taken the dog at that point and encouraged Grimes to give the dog back to the owners.
At the veterinary clinic, Dr. Nour Hassane documented Doogie’s condition: low weight, sores and missing fur, and took X-rays of his back and hips. The vet determined that the dog was in very poor condition and had painful back spurs that were most likely responsible for his inability to walk. Doogie was then given a shot for pain and some vitamins for energy, and Dr. Hassane wrote a letter stating the dog’s poor condition. After the visit to the vet, Grimes brought Doogie to her house to bathe and feed him, and she called the Humane Society officer on his cell phone to no avail.
Meanwhile, Doogie’s owners, the Arnolds, returned home from work and called the police to report their dog missing. Ironically, once the situation turned from the case of a suffering animal to a matter of stolen personal property, the authorities worked together–and very quickly–to discover Doogie’s whereabouts. According to Freedom Township Police Chief John Riley, the Arnolds said that someone in their neighborhood had seen a vehicle parked near their house with a DDB sticker on the bumper.
The police then called CPHS for any leads. Humane Officer Gotshall confirmed that he saw Grimes with the dog at the vet. Next, Officer Flaig from the Freedom Township Police Department called Grimes at her home. “At that point I was pretty much given two choices,” says Grimes. “Either give back the dog to the owners or you’ll be arrested. And giving back the dog was not an option for me. I couldn’t put the dog back into a situation where he was going to continue to lay in the yard until he died.” Instead, Grimes delivered Doogie to an anonymous foster home where she knew he’d be able to live in peace.
Because she would not reveal the location of the dog, Grimes was quickly arrested that evening and later released on bail. Despite existing cruelty laws, the Freedom Township Police Department opted not to charge Doogie’s owners with animal cruelty. Instead, Grimes was charged with theft and receiving stolen property. When asked why the Freedom Township Police Department didn’t press charges against the Arnolds for animal cruelty, Chief Riley explained, “We didn’t see the dog. We didn’t have any proof.” He went on to say that the vet report didn’t prove that the dog was being abused, and the video footage and photographs that Grimes shot didn’t provide sufficient evidence to press charges against the Arnolds. “Photos can be doctored,” he said. “And I could have made a video like that with my own dog.”
Doogie was able to experience an affection-filled, chain-free life inside his anonymous foster home until he passed away from his many health complications on March 1, 2007. Doogie’s body was quickly returned to Altoona, Pennsylvania for an autopsy, but the District Attorney Richard Consiglio ordered the body to be held at the vet until the Arnolds came to pick him up.
Currently, Grimes is awaiting trial and possible jail time. Grimes and her supporters insist that the trial shouldn’t be about whether or not she took the dog, but why she felt the need to do so. “The fact remains that I never once said that I didn’t take the dog. It’s clear that I took the dog. So what remains is why I took the dog: The dog was clearly suffering for three days. The owners were breaking the law for three days and nobody did anything about it. So then I came along and took the dog and got him the care that he needed. At that point, there should have been a thorough investigation about why I felt the need to take the dog and why I didn’t feel the need to give it back. I see that the case is more about lack of enforcement than anything else.”
Clearly, the court disagrees with Grimes and her supporters. On November 2, 2007, as a result of a pretrial motion hearing, the court declared that Grimes’ lawyers can’t use the reason why Grimes took Doogie–to immediately give the ailing dog the emergency care she was confident he so desperately needed–as a defense against the charges brought against Grimes. Pennsylvania law allows a person to use a justification defense only if she’s seeking to avoid harm to herself or another person, and according to Judge Elizabeth Doyle, “A dog is not a person, and moreover, is personal property.” Doyle is waiting until the trial to decide whether or not she’ll grant D.A. Consiglio’s motion to bar Grimes’ videotapes, photographs and vet documents from the trial.
Although Grimes is busy preparing for her impending trial, she’s still working on plans to expand the organization; her next goal is to build a foster rehabilitation and training facility for formerly chained dogs. “It’s not going to be like your typical shelter because the whole goal of the DDB shelter will be to teach the dogs to live inside homes with families. I want it to be a smaller, more intimate setting. What we’d probably do is take two packs of eight dogs at a time and teach them to live and get along with other dogs and also help them adjust to a home setting,” explains Grimes. “When dogs are released after being chained, they’re not really ready for the average home right away. Chained dogs have a much better chance for adoption if they’re fostered by someone who teaches them how to live in a home.”
Because of Grimes’ current legal situation, DDB is experiencing an outpouring of new attention. Although they have gathered some definite naysayers since her arrest, Grimes and DDB have also gained the support of animal lovers everywhere. People on both sides are outraged, but in the midst of it all, Grimes hasn’t lost sight of the importance of helping dogs like Doogie and Bo. She’s determined to make progress in the fight to free chained dogs throughout the world; hopefully, she won’t have to continue her efforts from behind bars.
Olivia LaBarre is a writer and editor based in Los Angeles, California. Contact her at olabarre@gmail.com.
Currently, DDB is offering many volunteer opportunities to people all over the world, including:
• Becoming an area rep
• Fostering
• Fencing
• Flyering
• Grant-writing
• Running educational booths
• Providing vet care or advice
To find out more about how you can become involved with DDB, read the organization’s latest news and success stories, discover how to fight for anti-chaining legislation in your area, or obtain more information about Grimes’ trial, visit www.dogsdeservebetter.org.
