One night last summer Philip Rinn tied a chain around the neck of his two-year-old, 80-pound Labrador retriever and dragged him behind his car, burning several large areas of skin off the dog’s body. When the dog didn’t die, Rinn ran over him a couple of times until he did, then left him in the ditch. Rinn later said he did it because the dog had chewed up his sofa. He was charged with cruel treatment of an animal and sentenced to 30 days in jail.
“I’m just trying to make it so it will sell to the legislators,” says Bromwell. “I want it to win. You don’t present something that can’t win. I’ll testify for it, but I want it to be effective.” Gross is confident the bill, which now has 20 cosponsors, will pass. “It’s very unlikely we’re going to have any opposition. Can you imagine anyone coming out and saying no?”
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Farmers and trappers blocked a similar bill proposed last March by Senator Beverly Fawell. Shocked by stories she heard of dogs having their feet dipped in lye and cats being skinned alive, Fawell wanted to make “humane violations” Class A misdemeanors and in some cases even Class 4 felonies. “As soon as you start talking at all about cruel and unusual punishment to animals you just get all these people coming down on you,” Fawell says. “I had tried to come up with something that made sense and was going to accomplish basically what I wanted to accomplish. But I don’t care how many times you work with these people, they don’t seem to understand or want to understand. I had people ask things like “What about boiling a lobster?’ or “What if you catch a fish and cut its head off while it’s still alive?’ I said, “Don’t give me that. That’s not what I’m talking about.”‘
Gross insists a Class A misdemeanor will get results when the abuse can be proved. “I mean, the judge in the Rinn case wanted to kill the guy. He would’ve given him the one year and the $1,000 fine. But I do agree that there’s a point at which you’re not going to be successful because the courts will not enforce it. The courts do not really believe in animal rights. That’s not part of our culture yet. It’s like women’s rights. The fact of the matter is that husbands could beat their wives until the 1970s. There were no penalties, and it wasn’t until we began changing our views that that changed. And it’s going to be the same thing with animals.”
Local animal-control officers, the main enforcers of the state and county laws, must issue warnings in neglect cases based on their interpretation of terms such as “adequate” and “sufficient.” And it’s hard for an officer to observe an animal regularly enough to make such a determination. Moreover, animals vary so much that consistency in applying the law becomes impossible; chaining a Saint Bernard out in the cold is not as bad as chaining out a Chihuahua.
The problem seemed to come to an end when Sandy managed to pull out the stake that secured her chain. A neighbor reported seeing her wandering the neighborhood, and then she disappeared. It took the Vietmeyers more than a day to realize she was gone. Barely a week later Baby was chained outside in her place.
