Hooray for Tammy Grimes! She did a very brave thing. A five year old child could easily see that Doogie was desperately in need of help! How incredibly blind and indifferent can the authorities be?

It is a sad testament to our so-called enlightened society that situations like this have to happen, when private individuals have to take matters into their own hands because those who have the power and authority to take action refuse to do so.

I am in complete support of what Tammy did as I too have found myself compelled to take action to remove dogs from situations that I know are bad but that I also know the authorities would not act upon if called or did not act on when called because in their view the dogs were not in "critical distress" .

I cannot go into details of these rescues because our community is small and descriptions of the situations may be recognized. But yes, there have been times when I have considered it necessary to 'make a dog disappear'. Sitting here I can think of close to a dozen times in our small town in the last few years. And I have never had to act alone in these cases. There are more people, women and men, like me that agree that there are times when those in authority just don't get it or are just wrong!

We do not by any stretch of the imagination take these measures lightly; we do this only as a last resort. But we know that, like Tammy Grimes, we could not live with ourselves if we let the situation continue. We also know that help will not come from the authorities, be it the police or the SPCA, because either they cannot or will not look beyond the obivous in some of these situations. They have such a narrow view of what is unacceptable, or what is 'critical distress.' And sometimes we have to act because we do not even have SPCA or animal control or anyone who can legally act on the dog's behalf, or will respond in time to save the its life.

I have to say that each time we have felt compelled to take action in this way has been frightening in one way or another, but never has that fear been generated by the animal. The fear is not for our own safety. The fear is the risk of being discovered before we can get the dog safely away from an intolerable situation. The fear that the dog will be returned to that situation and suffer even more. The fear of knowing that because the authorities would not or did not do their jobs, honest people must break the law. But the fear is overridden by the good feeling we get from the knowledge that we have taken action to save the life of the dog.

And we ask over and over again, why it is that we are forced into this position? Why should good, law abiding people have to take matters into their own hands in this way? What is wrong with the organizations that have the power to act but will not do so before an animal has suffered so much that it is in critical distress? And even then their actions vary from one situation to another and from one location to the next. Why do they not recognize that there are so many ways that cruelty can be inflicted on animals that are not visible from casual observation? Why is it we can see that, but they cannot? Where does their compassion go? And why is it so much easier for private individuals to see the problems than people whose paid job it is to recognize the problems and act upon them?