To The Editor:
I hope no prosecutor in this region will ever emulate the shameful conduct of District Attorney Richard Consiglio of Blair County, Pennsylvania.
Consiglio prosecuted Tammy Grimes, a woman who rescued a dying, chained dog while his uncaring people went dirt-bike racing, yet he adamantly refused to charge the owners with neglect under the Pennsylvania animal cruelty code.
Consiglio squandered thousands of taxpayer dollars on a misdemeanor trial that lasted three days. He used the forum to grandstand against a “vigilantism” that he said would, if unchecked, plunge our great nation into chaos.
What was the terrible thing that Grimes did? When neither the humane society, nor the police would, she responded to the call of a distraught neighbor who had watched the emaciated and dehydrated dog lie helpless for three days in mud and rain, unable to rise.
After Grimes (the founder and director of Dogs Deserve Better, Inc.) realized that authorities were not interested in prosecuting the owners, or protecting the dog, she refused to give the animal back to those people who had neglected him. When threatened with arrest, she said, “It’s his skin or mine,” and chose to sacrifice herself.
A movement to expose the district attorney’s misplaced priorities will begin now and continue for two years until election time. That Judge Elizabeth Doyle joined the District Attorney in bullying the jury into finding Grimes guilty is driving a call for an investigation into her honor’s conduct as well.
Founded just five years ago, Dogs Deserve Better is a national not-for-profit organization with 150 area representatives, including several in Canada and one in France.
Arthur Goldberg
Flatbush
