Published: December 14, 2007 11:50 pm      

Activist guilty of dog theft

HOLLIDAYSBURG — A Blair County jury took less than 30 minutes Friday to find animal-rights activist Tammy Grimes guilty of stealing a tethered dog and refusing to return it.

But the verdict only has spurred Grimes, 43, of Antis Township to fight even harder for a state law to make constant tethering a crime.

“Absolutely I’ll continue my fight. I may cry for a half-hour now, but they can’t keep me down,” she said as she hugged supporters and cried outside the courtroom minutes after the verdict was read.

The case pushed Grimes and Dogs Deserve Better, the anti-tethering organization she founded five years ago, into the national spotlight. She said that publicity has helped her cause – and hurt it.

“It polarized people. We have a lot of people who support us, but we have a lot who don’t,” Grimes said.

Grimes openly admitted that, on Sept. 11, 2006, she went onto the private property of Steve and Lori Arnold and took Jake, a 19-year-old mixed-breed German shepherd, after receiving a complaint from a neighbor of the Arnolds.

Jake was taken to a veterinarian and moved to an unknown foster home where he died more than five months later.

The three-day trial was a mix of conflicting testimony about the condition of Jake while he was in the Arnolds’ care, whether or not Grimes was told not to take the dog from the vet’s office, and attempts neighbor Kim Aungst made to contact authorities about the condition of the dog.

Despite conflicting testimony, Blair County District Attorney Richard Consiglio said in closing arguments that the condition of the dog could not justify Grimes taking the animal.

“The dog was not hers. She deprived the owners of the dog.

“If the defendant failed to return the dog to the Arnolds and gave it to a third party, she deprived the owners of the dog,” Consiglio said. “Without law you have chaos. Who wants someone taking the law into their own hands against them.”

Earlier in the day, the college-educated Grimes took the stand in her own defense, saying she didn’t know what to do with the dog after the veterinarian was done with the examination.

And she said she was determined it would not go back to the Arnolds until she could be guaranteed it would be cared for.

“It was either his skin or my skin. I had two choices: Either give the dog back to that situation or get arrested,” she said.

During the last months of his life, Jake was in two foster homes and was beginning to put on weight and show signs of improvement, she said.

“That dog was the worst dog I’d ever seen on a chain, and my thoughts were to get him care,” she said.

“It had nothing to do with being on a chain.”

Animal activist Trudy Schroth of Altoona said Grimes is the winner, despite the jury’s decision.

“I hope people read this and will realize you don’t treat dogs this way. I don’t think she lost,” Schroth said.

Despite the verdict, Grimes’ mother, Lorena Estep of Flinton, said she was proud of her and will continue to support her efforts to educate the public on not tethering dogs.

Grimes will be sentenced Feb. 22.

The convictions are misdemeanors and probably will carry probation and community service, officials said.