Dogs Deserve Better is a Finalist for the ePhilanthropy Award in Best Online Community Building and Activist Campaign!
Please Vote for us by September 17th for the People's Choice Award
Dogs Deserve Better has been selected as a finalist in the category of Best Community Building/ Volunteerism and/or Activism Campaign for the 2007 International ePhilanthropy Awards for our Chain Off 2007 Campaign.
To see all the nominees for the awards, visit this link:
http://www.ephilanthropy.org/site/PageServer?pagename=awards
To vote for Dogs Deserve Better for the People's Choice Award, visit this link:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=PP4kdNNW1e2zspu_2bIw3pJQ_3d_3d
We're deeply honored, especially since we're up against some major players for this award--International Fund for Animals and The Humane Society of the United States--just to name two.
At the age of 5, we're babies compared to these other organizations...but we're young, smart, and we work very, very hard for our issue. And we don't give up!
Chain Off 2007 was exclusively run via the internet, at a grassroots level, and brought in 108 people in 36 states, as well as over 200 media hits. We call that a Success, and to be considered a finalist for this award is a success for all of you who support Dogs Deserve Better, and especially those of you who chained yourselves to doghouses as part of this groundbreaking campaign.
Thank you for helping us succeed!
Please, vote for us NOW for the People's Choice Award. The voting only runs through September 17th, so ask all your friends and family to vote too!
To see all the nominees for the awards, visit this link:
http://www.ephilanthropy.org/site/PageServer?pagename=awards
To vote for Dogs Deserve Better for the People's Choice Award, visit this link:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=PP4kdNNW1e2zspu_2bIw3pJQ_3d_3d
Friday, September 14, 2007
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Anniversaries, Acts of Love, and the Caverns Beneath
Anniversaries, Acts of Love, and the Caverns Beneath
A year since Doogie. A year since my arrest. A year.
6 months since his death. I struggle to understand what happened, still, today.
Am I really a human? A woman? A mother? A leader? An American? A thief?
Who are these people who relentlessly pursue me? Are they human? Why are we so different? I don't comprehend.
People say I'm a hero for rescuing Doogie. I like it. I hate it when anyone saves anything and then denies that they are a hero, for it steals the beauty in the act. In that one moment of your life you are a hero, regardless of whether you embrace it or not. Whether comfortable with it or not. And maybe you'd return the dog and maybe you wouldn't. You don't know until you're there.
People say I'm a devil for stealing a dog. I hate it. I hate it that they can't see, that they can't perceive of anyone doing anything selfless, and so attribute vile, self-serving motives to it. Because they never could or would.
I hate that I care. I resolve to stop caring.
My ex-husband is trying to take my kids. I hate it. I struggle to understand. I cry every day, and I couldn't cry before. But now I can. Facing the loss of my children I have rediscovered that I am human after all. And mother.
Some will say it's karma. I took Doogie, therefore now I may lose something I love. Trouble is, I didn't chain my children until they could no longer stand. And ride ATVs while they writhed on the ground begging for me to see them.
Love?
I bore both children without drugs. None. I did that for them, not me. Now when a doctor asks me to compare my pain to the worst pain I ever felt, I have to say it's a 1. Because once you've born a child without drugs, most everything else is just a 1.
I breastfed my children for 1 and 2 years respectively. I did that for them, not me. Anything which ties a woman to a baby, sagging her breasts for life, cannot be attributed to selfishness in a society tied only to looks and body image.
Will I lose my children because I give so much of myself to my other 'child', Dogs Deserve Better, that I've left them open to hostile takeover? I haven't guarded them closely enough, given them enough of me, the mother? I struggle to mother both children and dogs, yet I love them all ferociously, and would gladly lay down my life for all of them.
I shoulder the onus for stealing Doogie. Not without great personal sacrifice, not without absolute conviction in moral right and moral wrong.
A year later, I will spend days in court for both Doogie and my children. Faced with the possibility of losses on both sides. Weakened from pain. Faithless in the rightness of our society and our system...
In the depths of despair, one thing remains clear. No matter how ugly our world, no matter how much pain there is to endure, how you are pursued, persecuted, tortured, tormented, the only thing that truly holds meaning in the end is did you do the right thing? The TRULY right thing...not the thing you justify to yourself and others.
The one you feel in your gut.
I did, and I cling to that knowledge. And for now I cling to my children, and love them ferociously. Give them more of me.
I am terribly flawed like most humans, and some days an utter failure. Then the cat who's life I saved—with a year-long raw food diet (yuk)—jumps to drink from the meditation fountain, and I smile. My children tell me they love me—and mean it—and I melt. And Miss Deer—the biggest scaredy dog in the world—sleeps on my bed and licks my hand, and my heart beats its joy.
Today, September 11, 2007, I feel too deeply the struggles of the world, and the unfairness within. Today, we hold a collective sadness in America, and my suffering is only the tiniest particle in that sadness.
Today, I hold every suffering soul in my heart, and wish for you all the courage to do the right thing, even when it's hardest. Maybe in that awakening alone will be the salvation of mankind, and with it man's best friends.
That is my hope.
Tammy Grimes, mother, founder, Dogs Deserve Better
A year since Doogie. A year since my arrest. A year.
6 months since his death. I struggle to understand what happened, still, today.
Am I really a human? A woman? A mother? A leader? An American? A thief?
Who are these people who relentlessly pursue me? Are they human? Why are we so different? I don't comprehend.
People say I'm a hero for rescuing Doogie. I like it. I hate it when anyone saves anything and then denies that they are a hero, for it steals the beauty in the act. In that one moment of your life you are a hero, regardless of whether you embrace it or not. Whether comfortable with it or not. And maybe you'd return the dog and maybe you wouldn't. You don't know until you're there.
People say I'm a devil for stealing a dog. I hate it. I hate it that they can't see, that they can't perceive of anyone doing anything selfless, and so attribute vile, self-serving motives to it. Because they never could or would.
I hate that I care. I resolve to stop caring.
My ex-husband is trying to take my kids. I hate it. I struggle to understand. I cry every day, and I couldn't cry before. But now I can. Facing the loss of my children I have rediscovered that I am human after all. And mother.
Some will say it's karma. I took Doogie, therefore now I may lose something I love. Trouble is, I didn't chain my children until they could no longer stand. And ride ATVs while they writhed on the ground begging for me to see them.
Love?
I bore both children without drugs. None. I did that for them, not me. Now when a doctor asks me to compare my pain to the worst pain I ever felt, I have to say it's a 1. Because once you've born a child without drugs, most everything else is just a 1.
I breastfed my children for 1 and 2 years respectively. I did that for them, not me. Anything which ties a woman to a baby, sagging her breasts for life, cannot be attributed to selfishness in a society tied only to looks and body image.
Will I lose my children because I give so much of myself to my other 'child', Dogs Deserve Better, that I've left them open to hostile takeover? I haven't guarded them closely enough, given them enough of me, the mother? I struggle to mother both children and dogs, yet I love them all ferociously, and would gladly lay down my life for all of them.
I shoulder the onus for stealing Doogie. Not without great personal sacrifice, not without absolute conviction in moral right and moral wrong.
A year later, I will spend days in court for both Doogie and my children. Faced with the possibility of losses on both sides. Weakened from pain. Faithless in the rightness of our society and our system...
In the depths of despair, one thing remains clear. No matter how ugly our world, no matter how much pain there is to endure, how you are pursued, persecuted, tortured, tormented, the only thing that truly holds meaning in the end is did you do the right thing? The TRULY right thing...not the thing you justify to yourself and others.
The one you feel in your gut.
I did, and I cling to that knowledge. And for now I cling to my children, and love them ferociously. Give them more of me.
I am terribly flawed like most humans, and some days an utter failure. Then the cat who's life I saved—with a year-long raw food diet (yuk)—jumps to drink from the meditation fountain, and I smile. My children tell me they love me—and mean it—and I melt. And Miss Deer—the biggest scaredy dog in the world—sleeps on my bed and licks my hand, and my heart beats its joy.
Today, September 11, 2007, I feel too deeply the struggles of the world, and the unfairness within. Today, we hold a collective sadness in America, and my suffering is only the tiniest particle in that sadness.
Today, I hold every suffering soul in my heart, and wish for you all the courage to do the right thing, even when it's hardest. Maybe in that awakening alone will be the salvation of mankind, and with it man's best friends.
That is my hope.
Tammy Grimes, mother, founder, Dogs Deserve Better
Monday, September 03, 2007
Grimes Responds to DA Attempt to Bar Defense Evidence
Woman accused of dog theft issues statement in response to Pennsylvania DA's attempt to bar defense evidence from trial
Tammy Grimes says "Let's make it easy for you—I did it."
Tipton, PA — September 3, 2007 — Tammy Grimes, founder of Dogs Deserve Better, a national nonprofit working to end the suffering endured by dogs who are kept chained or penned for life, today released a statement in response to District Attorney Richard Consiglio's attempt to bar all defense evidence from the courtroom.
An article in Saturday, September 1st's Altoona Mirror states: "Consiglio on Thursday filed a request to exclude testimony during the trial [from]...a veterinarian as an expert witness to discuss the dog's condition," as well as videotape of the dog and any reference to the dog as being 'abandoned property'.
Grimes aided a dog September 11, 2006, who'd lain chained and on the ground for 3 days, unable to stand and without enforcement of existing cruelty laws. She was subsequently arrested after refusing to return the dog who she dubbed Doogie to his abusive environment.
Grimes response to the DA is as follows:
"Mr. Consiglio has stated that 'the Grimes case has nothing to do with canine rights.' On the contrary, this case has everything to do with Doogie's rights—his right to live free of abuse being already inherent in Pennsylvania anti-cruelty laws.
Whether you bar the evidence or not, the fact remains that laws were being broken for at least three days before I got there. Yet you've shown no interest in pursuing cruelty charges against the perpetrators.
It's a shame you choose not to uphold those laws, especially when the Michael Vick case clearly shows that most of America actually CARES about Man's Best Friend. I'm sorry the police force of East Freedom, Pennsylvania and District Attorney Richard Consiglio apparently do not.
My case not only has to do with the right of a dog not to be abused as per already-existing Pennsylvania laws, but also has to do with MY rights—my right to defend myself in a court of law being first and foremost.
If you take away my right to defend myself, which is what you are seeking to do, then let me go ahead and make it easy for you:
I T-O-O-K T-H-E D-O-G.
Throw me in jail.
I will not pay you a dime.
I have the right to defend my actions, and without evidence I have no defense.
This case has nothing to do with theft and everything to do with inadequacy. Inadequacy of enforcement, inadequacy of investigation, and inadequacy of prosecution.
In seeking to convict me, you actually seek instead to cover up your own inadequacies.
I will gladly go to jail for Doogie, and I would do so a thousand times over. I am not scared nor intimidated. Barring my evidence cannot stop it from being viewed by the public, which has happened over 50,000 times on YouTube, as well as on local and national news. You may seek to hide the truth, but the truth always finds its way out.
Doogie's truth is my truth, and HIS truth WILL set us BOTH free."
Dogs Deserve Better (www.dogsdeservebetter.org) is a 501c3 nonprofit organization headquartered in Tipton, Pennsylvania, is the 2003 First Place Winner of the ASPCA Pet Protector Award, and currently has over 150 area reps in 38 states as well as in Canada and France.
Tammy Grimes says "Let's make it easy for you—I did it."
Tipton, PA — September 3, 2007 — Tammy Grimes, founder of Dogs Deserve Better, a national nonprofit working to end the suffering endured by dogs who are kept chained or penned for life, today released a statement in response to District Attorney Richard Consiglio's attempt to bar all defense evidence from the courtroom.
An article in Saturday, September 1st's Altoona Mirror states: "Consiglio on Thursday filed a request to exclude testimony during the trial [from]...a veterinarian as an expert witness to discuss the dog's condition," as well as videotape of the dog and any reference to the dog as being 'abandoned property'.
Grimes aided a dog September 11, 2006, who'd lain chained and on the ground for 3 days, unable to stand and without enforcement of existing cruelty laws. She was subsequently arrested after refusing to return the dog who she dubbed Doogie to his abusive environment.
Grimes response to the DA is as follows:
"Mr. Consiglio has stated that 'the Grimes case has nothing to do with canine rights.' On the contrary, this case has everything to do with Doogie's rights—his right to live free of abuse being already inherent in Pennsylvania anti-cruelty laws.
Whether you bar the evidence or not, the fact remains that laws were being broken for at least three days before I got there. Yet you've shown no interest in pursuing cruelty charges against the perpetrators.
It's a shame you choose not to uphold those laws, especially when the Michael Vick case clearly shows that most of America actually CARES about Man's Best Friend. I'm sorry the police force of East Freedom, Pennsylvania and District Attorney Richard Consiglio apparently do not.
My case not only has to do with the right of a dog not to be abused as per already-existing Pennsylvania laws, but also has to do with MY rights—my right to defend myself in a court of law being first and foremost.
If you take away my right to defend myself, which is what you are seeking to do, then let me go ahead and make it easy for you:
I T-O-O-K T-H-E D-O-G.
Throw me in jail.
I will not pay you a dime.
I have the right to defend my actions, and without evidence I have no defense.
This case has nothing to do with theft and everything to do with inadequacy. Inadequacy of enforcement, inadequacy of investigation, and inadequacy of prosecution.
In seeking to convict me, you actually seek instead to cover up your own inadequacies.
I will gladly go to jail for Doogie, and I would do so a thousand times over. I am not scared nor intimidated. Barring my evidence cannot stop it from being viewed by the public, which has happened over 50,000 times on YouTube, as well as on local and national news. You may seek to hide the truth, but the truth always finds its way out.
Doogie's truth is my truth, and HIS truth WILL set us BOTH free."
Dogs Deserve Better (www.dogsdeservebetter.org) is a 501c3 nonprofit organization headquartered in Tipton, Pennsylvania, is the 2003 First Place Winner of the ASPCA Pet Protector Award, and currently has over 150 area reps in 38 states as well as in Canada and France.
Falling Star, Rising Son: The Football Player and the Pit Bull Art Auction
To read more and bid on this art, visit this link.
Tipton, PA — September 3, 2007 — Dogs Deserve Better, a national nonprofit working to end the suffering endured by dogs kept chained or penned for life, announced that auction has started today for a one-of-a-kind artpiece addressing dog chaining, dog fighting, and the abuse of America's pit bull type dogs. The piece, created by founder Tammy Grimes, is entitled "Falling Star, Rising Son: The Football Player and the Pit Bull", and contains stars and a shard border cut from actual NFL football tickets which were donated to the organization.
The tickets, from a DDB supporter, were for an August 26th pre-season game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles, and were intended for use as a fundraiser for the organization. When the Michael Vick case came to light and organizations began boycotting NFL games, the decision was made not to sell the tickets. Ideas were solicited on YouTube, and the winning suggestion was to create an original piece of art on the issue and encompassing the actual tickets.
The piece features Phoenix, who many people fought to save and who became DDB's September's calendar dog, as the Rising Son. Grimes states her motivation as follows: "A star falls, breaking walls of depravity, immorality, inhumanity. From the ashes the son rises, conquering those who objectify him; his true champions hail and shield him...they, the Rescue Angels."
All proceeds from the auction will go to Dogs Deserve Better, with prints of the piece without the ticket stars and shards donating 50% of the proceeds to Dogs Deserve Better. In addition, the first 5 signed prints sold online will get 1 small star each cut from the remaining portions of the Steeler-Eagle tickets.
The auction will run on e-bay through September 13th, and can be reached through this link: http://www.dogsdeservebetter.org/fallingstar.html. To buy prints of the piece without the football tickets, visit http://www.littlegirllooking.com/fallingstar.html.
Dogs Deserve Better (www.dogsdeservebetter.org) is a 501c3 nonprofit organization headquartered in Tipton, Pennsylvania, is the 2003 First Place Winner of the ASPCA Pet Protector Award, and currently has over 150 area reps in 38 states as well as in Canada and France.
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