Today is February 22, 2009, and I’m officially off probation for the theft of a dog left flailing about in the mud and his own feces—unable to stand for three days—yet who, regardless of his plight, remained chained indifferently to the same doghouse he’d known forever.

http://www.dogsdeservebetter.org/doogie.html

One year ago today I was called a piece of trash by a DA who’s sole concern was that I’d removed property from the yard of an East Freedom home.

One year ago today I was told I was no hero by a judge who withheld video evidence of the dog’s condition and instructed the jury to convict me.

The breach in morality by those in power so overwhelmed me that I spiraled into the abyss known solely as hell, even losing my daughter because I couldn’t face another day in the courtroom that terrified me and drew me back to childhood traumas.

I was forced to confront the demons of my past. I saw the cycle of abuse repeat itself, and struggled to make sense of it, find a way through the darkness back to the light I believed in and which gave me a reason to exist.

For 60 days I could barely lift my head. Could scarcely put one foot in front of the other. Could hardly lead the organization I loved with such passion, nurtured from its essence, grew from a pebble.

Yet today, I know that truth still stands. Those in power may seek to control a truth they find bothersome, may seek to destroy those who fight for that truth, may cover the truth with so many lies it is damn near impossible to extract from the poison.

But extract it we will.

Fight for it we will.

Die for it we will, and gladly.

Because you will never kill the truth, or the souls of those who protect it.

Truth has a power you cannot have. Truth has the power of purity, of God strength, of a massive uprising that can only be suppressed by immorality for so long before bursting forth with a power so fierce there are no bounds to contain it.

Dogs do have rights, and protecting Doogie from abuse was not only my responsibility but my moral obligation, and ironically my duty under the law just as his owners. If one has knowledge of abuse and does nothing then they are just as guilty of that abuse as those committing the crime. You have not destroyed that knowledge.

Dogs do not belong on chains, nor does any other, man nor beast. Freedom belongs to us all, and is not the domain only of man, or only of men.

We will be free, and we will continue to fight for freedom for those who have not. Join me in this battle; they have not killed the truth with their poison.

Truth still lives, and the truth will be set free.

View SHARK video about the Doogie story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8OI58JoufU