Woman Gets Criminal Record for Petting Dog

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Moparmike

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Woman Gets Criminal Record for Petting Dog


By Associated Press

March 11, 2004, 10:01 AM EST


SAN JOSE, Calif. -- All Tamar Sherman wanted to do was pet a dog and give it some water. Sherman's act left her with a criminal record.

A few months ago, Sherman was walking near her South San Jose home and encountered a dog left outside in the cold while its owners were inside.

Sherman, a member of a national group called Dogs Deserve Better, decided to pet the dog on a few occassions and once gave it water. That didn't please the dog's owner.

"When I went out there to fill up the dog bowl, this woman was standing in my back yard," attorney Ron Berki told the San Jose Mercury News. "My response was, `Who ... are you?' She told me, `I'm here to pet your dog.'"

For that, Sherman pleaded guilty this week to two misdemeanors -- trespassing and prowling -- and was sentenced to 75 hours of community service and a year of probation. She also was ordered to stay at least 100 yards away from Berki's home.

"I just wanted to find out if a dog that seemed to be in distress was OK," Sherman told the paper. "I do not think my actions were a crime in comparison with abuse or neglect of +animals+."

Berki denies that his dog, Bailey, was abused or neglected, saying the dog sleeps inside with him every night.

"If Miss Sherman was so concerned about my dog, it would have been easy to come to my front door and speak to me directly," he said.
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http://www.newsday.com/news/nationw...76565.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

What I find appalling is how easy it is to abuse a law in my home town (where this didnt happen) relating to this issue, where trespassing to ensure the welfare of an animal is perfectly legal if you beleive its life is in danger, IIRC. Now while I dont condone trespassing nor the mistreatment of animals (infact, I treat my dog like she is my own child *pets fwappy-eared beagawy poopy-dawg :)* ) , I can see many people abusing this law here. We have had Animal Control called at least a half-dozen times because we let our dog out from noon to 3pm and she barks at squirrels. :rolleyes: Even had a neighbor fake a neighborhood coalition and ask that we "discipline the dog not to bark." :rolleyes: :scrutiny:

This lady needs a good dose of common sense. Like I said above, I love my dog like she is my own, and if I saw some stranger in my yard they might be looking down the wrong end of a 12ga persuasion stick if they decide to get uncooperative. :eek: Some of us dont take kindly to trespassing, yet a knock on the door is well recieved. Logic, its whats for dinner.â„¢
 
I'm so sick of news headlines that are deliberately deceptive.

She got a criminal record for trespassing and prowling, not dog petting. If she comes creepin' about my dooryard after dark she had better pray that it's me that comes out with the shotgun and not my more nervously dispositioned wife.

OTOH, if she thinks my dogs need more TLC and she wanted to pet them she'd be welcome to at any reasonable hour - provided she asked first!
 
All Tamar Sherman wanted to do was pet a dog and give it some water.
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BS all she wanted to do was be a blissninny PITA. The stupid #$%& needs to mind her own damned business.
 
It's not like this woman called the cops on them for abusing their animal. she just walked onto someones lawn and proceeded to pet their dog. Those other comments came after she was charged.
 
Here is Tamar Sherman's contact info

Lafayette, California
Tamar Sherman • 408.269.3236 • e-mail [email protected]

She is listed as the area coordinator for the Lafayette area. What is she doing in San Jose?

Here is the Dogs Deserve Better website. Hope that they always follow the laws.

(I post this because I seriously dislike butt-in-skis. I guess it goes back to watching Bewitched when I was young. The character,Mrs. Kravitz, in the series was a butt-in-ski.)
 
Yeah, she was jsut tresspasing ont heir property out of concern for someone elses animal. its just cooincidence that she belongs to an organization that believes that dogs should ONLY be kept in the living room. right. I catch some PETA blissninny in my backyard they are going to jail too.
 
Oh, but of course there's no difference between trespassing on someone's unfenced lawn and petting their dog and breaking down their door and robbing them! She's as bad as the common goblin
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I wouldn't say she's as bad as a common goblin, but I highly doubt that all she did was walk onto the lawn, once - and then the police immediately swooped in to arrest her.

Pled guilty to trespassing AND prowling? Anybody from California up on the statutes? The states I've lived in you have to tell a person to leave and they refuse, they ignore posted signs, or climb fences to be guilty of trespassing. I'm guessing she's an animal rights activist - and intended to be arrested to get attention for her cause.
 
Oh, but of course there's no difference between trespassing on someone's unfenced lawn and petting their dog and breaking down their door and robbing them! She's as bad as the common goblin!
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You’re showing your ignorance of American law again. :) Breaking and entering would be a felony. Trespassing and prowling are misdemeanors. She won’t serve any jail time. She’s a blissninny activist that intruded into someone’s business and I’m glad to see that the law apparently took the right side here. If she really suspected abuse she should have called the authorities, but the results seem to indicate that there was no abuse going on here. She just wanted to start trouble with someone else’s property.
 
I had a similar problem. When I was a kid the neigbors had a roommate move out and leave their doberman behind.

The scummy lowlifes who remained in the house hardly fed or watered the dog. The dogs chain would get wrapped around the pole and the it would spend long hours stuck. The neighbors were out of town a lot
so I would go over, unknown to them unwrap the dog give it food and water and pet it.

This went on for a while until finally I asked the scumbag crackheads if I could take care of their dog for them. They asked if I wanted it.

My dad took it to his work and made it a watch dog.

I can understand where the lady is coming from. I figured if I called the cops
the dog would be put to sleep and the drug crazed neighbors would come kill me.

Maybe it could have been settled differently but it sounds like they threw the book at her for being a dog loving kook.
 
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Oh, but of course there's no difference between trespassing on someone's unfenced lawn and petting their dog and breaking down their door and robbing them! She's as bad as the common goblin!
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This kind of thinking is born of ignorance. Ignorance of a little thing called property rights. Any and all attempts to ignore or thwart property rights erodes liberty and promotes chaos when those attempts are successful. No one has a right to be on my property unless I grant that right. Ms. Sherman was clearly in the wrong. Had it not been for the interference of government she would have been allowed to gaze deeply into a muzzle and gain enlightenment as to the error of her way...truly a life-changing experience.

Property rights - it what civilization exists on.

Chipper
 
I think you don't get my point
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your original post
Oh, but of course there's no difference between trespassing on someone's unfenced lawn and petting their dog and breaking down their door and robbing them! She's as bad as the common goblin!
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You are EQUATING B&E with trespassing through sarcasm. They are NOT equal and she wasn't treated as a B&E suspect (from the article at least), but she was treated as athe criminal she is. If you have more of a point than that, then yes I missed it, but the error is not on my part.

I think it's just more of your sarcastic socialist drivel..... IMHO of course :)
 
A few months ago, Sherman was walking near her South San Jose home and encountered a dog left outside in the cold while its owners were inside.
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A few months ago would have been in the fall. How cold could it have been in San Jose in October, especially if this twit was out taking a stroll? Having grown up a little further north (Castro Valley for those in the area ;) ) I know that even in the middle of winter about the worst that you will encounter is a little bit of frost first thing in the morning. Also, don't most houses in the area have a 6' tall privacy fence enclosing the backyard? So she either hopped the fence or unlocked a gate to get in there.

Now when my neighbor's dogs are outside & I'm passing by I'll usually stop & lean over his fence to scratch their ears. But I would never think of going into his yard uninvited to play with them. Likewise, when one of their dogs gets out when they aren't home, I'll throw the dog in my backyard to play with mine until they get home. Every time this has happened they ring the doorbell to let me know that they are going into my yard to get their dog.

It's just a simple thing called respect & it is obvious that this cretin doesn't have any for anyone else.
 
Oh no! I know people that actually have their pets *living* outside 24/7 ::sniff, sniff::, in doghouses ::whimper::, with a chain attached to their collar :eek: Oh, the humanity!!! Won't someone stand up for the poor animals??? :rolleyes:

I have a dog that I love dearly, but that doesn't mean he's no longer an animal. He sleeps on the floor, relieves himself outside, and better darn well come when I call. These blissninnies put more importance on an animal's life than a human's. :scrutiny:
 
Maybe it could have been settled differently but it sounds like they threw the book at her for being a dog loving kook.
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If it were a case such as you described re your own situation, then I heartily agree with you that it is an injustice.

I just don't think it very likely that that was the case. I can't imagine getting that reponse from the leo's that I have known if I were to have demanded they prosecute someone for petting my dog, if that person left my property when I told them to.
 
The law in Calif. is that if the property is not posted or fenced the person must be asked to leave before they can be cited for trespassing. In most cases the police will arrive and ask the person to leave and then site them only if they do not comply even if the property is fenced or posted. So this person either went into a fenced yard or refused to leave after being asked to leave.
 
One more misdemeanor and Sherman officially becomes

a Felon in the city of New York. Gun rights gone forever.
 
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