UPDATE 6:57pm: Tammie has been released on an unsecured bond of $10k. Her court date is 10/17 at 1:30pm in Courtroom 3 at the Wayne County Courthouse. She has a consultation with a lawyer next Tuesday afternoon, but if anyone has a lawyer who will represent her pro bono, she would be happy to talk with them
A Wayne County, NC woman has been arrested after housing animals rescued from Hurricane Florence and taken to a warehouse to keep them safe. Click here and here for previous PoC articles to bring yourself up to date on this wild display of bad government.
A petition page set up for Tammie Hedges of Crazys Claws n Paws stated
“Tammie Hedges runs Crazy’s Claws n Paws, a non-profit group which helps low-income families with veterinary bills, pet supplies and other needs.
She’s in the process of converting a warehouse space along Route 581 into a shelter. With the storm approaching last week, she offered it as an option for pets to stay.
Through donations, Hedges brought in crates, food and other supplies to help the animals get through the storm. She said volunteers stayed with the animals 24 hours a day. She said there were 27 animals there in all, including 17 cats and 10 dogs.
On Monday (Sept 17) after the storm had passed, she said she got a call from Wayne County’s animal services manager Frank Sauls regarding the animals. She said he told her, “You can voluntarily hand over the animals, or I can go get a warrant.” Animal control seized all the animals and Tammy could still be facing charges for rescuing the animals.”
Tammie was arrested Friday afternoon. Her Facebook page Crazys Claws N Paws made the unbelievable announcement.
“Just to update everyone, Tammie was just arrested and is being taken to county jail. They sent two cars of men to arrest one 4’10” female! Charged with practicing veterinary medicine and some other charges that they said they didn’t know.
Please share far and wide!”
UPDATE on Facebook Friday night stated
She is charged with the following: 1 count of administering amoxicillin to Big Momma, 1 count of administering Tramadol to Big Momma, 3 counts of administering amoxicillin to a white Siamese cat, 3 counts of administering a topical antibiotic ointment (triple antibiotic from Dollar Tree) to a white Siamese cat, 3 counts of administering amoxicillin to a cat known as Sweet Pea, 1 count of administering amoxicillin to an unnamed black kitten, and 1 count of solicitation to commit a crime (asking for donation of Tramadol (that was suppose to be a request for a vet).
[Tramadol is a pain killer which can be used for pets and amoxicillin is an antibiotic for pets]
Tammie said to wdef.com:
“We were trying to help abandoned animals…A group of us got together to do something to help those animals. [That’s] why we opened our building to them, so they’d have a safe dry place to go until their owners returned to get them.”
As a volunteer and one of the directors for CCNP’s Board, I need to make a personal comment. For those being judgemental and criticizing her, you need to remember this was during a natural disaster. Even though her site wasn’t flooded, all routes to everywhere were closed. The vets closed too. She had two cats come in severely sick and an injured dog. Was she suppose to let the cats spread the germs and infect everyone else? And was she suppose to let the dog suffer? She did what she needed to at that time til she could reach a vet. If your animal was in that condition, would you want someone to leave them to get sicker or stay in pain? Please think people, and remember the situation. Thank you.
You can contact the Board of Commissioners by clicking here.
This is clearly a case of no good deed goes unpunished.
Wayne County NC will never be a place I go to- for any reason. It is dead to me.
What kind of losers inhabit that place?? She is a Non-Profit rescue. Rescues administer drugs all the time either purchased thru a vet or thru mail order houses.
She should be given an award not this. Shame on every resident in this County because it is your elected officials that you put into office that have allowed this miscarriage.
Well said BC. You summed it up nicely.
I would have done the same thing she did – I believe it was the right thing to do – to treat a sick animal in a disaster situation.
1) Not knowing the whole story yet, had she not done anything while these animals were exhibiting symptoms of being sick (let’s say with with a URI that is totally treatable with antibiotics and amoxicillin is what is in Clavamox which is usually their first choice antibiotic in URIs in cats), they would have gone after her for neglect (for not getting them to a vet that was closed while being totally flooded in).
2) With the 2 cats that came in severely sick, it is also most likely that they were not eating and possibly dehydrated and starting them on antibiotics right away would be the best thing to do to start to get them feeling better so they would go back to eating and drinking. Kittens go down hill fast when they are sick and not eating and there is no time to wait several days until vets open up.
3) Is anyone following up where AC took the animals and if they are getting veterinary care and being returned to their owners?
Sadly, the error on her part was to solicit for any medication. She licked the red off of someone’s candy and this was retaliation. However, it doesn’t say if the animal was previously on medication and perhaps the owner did not have it with them or had to leave home without it. The tramadol was the straw that broke the back, so to speak. We as individuals can purchase antibiotics on line all day long. Anything sold legally can be administered legally. Meanwhile, while animals lay dying, drowning, struggling in suffocation for that last breath that meant so much, the person who reported her is a POS. They preferred to take issue with these pets being safe and I dare ay they take no issue with those lay dying, drowning on chains, kittens laying somewhere drowning on the ground and you can bet they never had their ass out there trying to save them. Like it or not, those who rescue will do what they need to do to alleviate suffering. I can’t say that for the vet community. Many, if not most, will turn an animal away in pain and dying if that person don’t have up front money to have them seen. They will send them off into the parking lot to die. Please don’t get me started!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We can walk into any local Tractor Supply store and choose from many veterinary medications and a complete assortment of hypodermic needles with no prescription or license required. We regularly inject antibiotics when one of our babies is sick. We even provide sub-q fluids for our geriatric pets as needed. Our primary care IS provided by licensed DVM’s, but home care is a regular part of our life as well. Our cats and dogs live exceptionally long lives, so it seems that we must be doing something right.
I’m waiting to hear the rest of the story because with all the chaos going on right now to find the time to go after a rescue even a bogus one that has 27 animals seems a bit far fetched.
There are several who believe she made an enemy of someone and that person retaliated. I’m curious to see too. Go look at this one and see what all is considered veterinary medicine in NC. https://pictures-of-cats.org/discussion-how-many-of-us-are-practicing-veterinary-medicine-without-a-license.html
I really want to see the actual charges here. Specifically owners treat their pets via DVM instructions by the millions daily. Otherwise we’d have to take our pets to the office for a daily pill. The crossover is treating someone else’s pet that is not under veterinary care. Other wise they’d be able to charge me with practicing as a doctor for reminding my husband to take his medication or simply giving the pills to him to take. One article mentioned the dogs only. Unless the animals were in danger I fail to see the need to waste the resources on an unregistered rescue. Simply documenting the animals there should have been sufficient unless there is something more going on. Considering the magnitude of this disaster animals are dying at an alarming rate. Why push this on some that seem to have been if nothing else safe.
Back to practicing veterinary medicine it is usually considered illegal to buy and use controlled substances. This would be some antibiotics though you can easily buy them online but if you can buy the medication over the counter it’s usually not considered practicing veterinary medicine. Generally it’s the use of controlled substances or presenting yourself as a licensed Dr. or DVM. A good instance comes to mind. Someone is a professional cat sitter administering medication or sub q for a pet while the owner is out of town. They are still treating the pet under a veterinarians instructions. I get the subtle differences between this and that’s why I wonder what she could have done to bring so much wrath down on herself.
I am sure that 99% of the time people who do what Tammie has allegedly done are ignored by the police. On many occasions I have read about experienced American cat guardians, of usually many cats, who administer medication to their cats to reduce vet bills.
I thought it was accepted. Surely the police have some ‘genuine’ crimes to stop. If she was doing wrong perhaps a talking to would have been the better course of action?
I agree. Talking it over and joining forces would have been the better action.
Like Elisa, I’ve either read about or experienced hateful people who enjoy harming others or who are out for revenge, sometimes acting out of jealousy.
With state approval she’s in the process of developing a shelter. This will be competition for the county shelter and now Sauls will have someone he is compared against. This is a power struggle.
Two possible trolls showed in the comments. I hope she controls how she parses info in the future.
Thanks Anne. Future comments you make will be published immediately. The ‘first-time’ moderation is in place because the site gets lots of spam and quite a few trolls 😉
Well I commented but it disappeared when I hit post. Hmmm
It was held for moderation as it was probably your first comment on the site. Thanks for commenting, Anne.
Yes, 13 years ago after a dog was shot, a vet sent a lady home with a vile of pain medicine and needles after surgery. She taught her how to give the shots for her dog. She also was given IV s to hydrate him every morning before work… So just being under the supervision of a vet not present when she gave the dog pain shots was illegal? The veterinary office knew all that she was doing for the dog. Why is it illegal for this woman under an emergency situation being charged for doing what any vet would have a person do? Vets teach how to give any kind of shot to your animal when needed. Let it go, you act as if you’re angry the pets didn’t die or suffer. Drop the charges. Anyone can go to a local farmers exchange and buy needles and parvo vaccine for their dog and give it to your dog, is that not that acting as a vet too?
Thanks for making a good point Debbie.