LINCOLN COUNTY • When Jessica Dudding saw a yellow Lab tied to a pipe in a vacant lot on a cold December night, her only thought was to get the dog shelter.
She never imagined her good deed would end with her being charged for lying about where she found the dog.
Dudding, 34, was out looking at Christmas lights with her husband and two boys Dec. 27 in the Glen Meadows subdivision, south of Troy, Mo., when they saw the dog.
“As we got closer, I saw it had a red collar, like a shock collar, and tied to that and a sewer pole was a green baseball belt,” she said. “I wasn’t sure if someone had dumped it or if someone was just playing a prank, but I knew it was extremely cold already, and the temperature was supposed to drop even more.”
Dudding couldn’t find any identifying information on the dog, so she called the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department.
“My boys actually sat next to the dog and put their coat on him while we waited,” she said.
A deputy told Dudding the county had no facilities for strays, and Dudding said she couldn’t keep the dog herself because she already had two of her own.
The deputy told her the nearest shelter was in Wentzville in St. Charles County, but he wasn’t sure they would take a dog from Lincoln County.
Because it was close to 11 p.m., and the wind chill was 19 degrees, Dudding said she decided to try the shelter. The deputy cut the belt and helped her load the dog in her van.
When Dudding got to the Wentzville Police Department, an officer took her drivers license number and asked her where she had found the dog.
“I told him I found him on Wentzville Parkway, close to Highway 61,” she said. “I was scared that they were going to tell me, ‘You live in Lincoln County, and we can’t do anything.’ ”
The police took the dog, and Dudding posted a picture of the animal on her neighborhood Facebook page. A few days later, someone mentioned a sign on Highway U about a missing yellow Labrador retriever. Dudding’s husband got the phone number, and they called the Campbell family.
Bryan Campbell said that when Dudding found his 3-year-old dog, Diesel, he had been missing for more than 24 hours. Campbell said he had an electronic fence but the battery in Diesel’s collar must have died.
“This was the first time he was gone for any length of time,” Campbell said. “My girls went out looking for him but couldn’t find him, so they posted some signs.”
Campbell said he had no idea who had tied up his dog or why they had done it. He feels partly to blame because he didn’t have Diesel’s name on his collar, something he has since rectified.
When the Duddings called about Diesel, Campbell said he couldn’t pick up his dog right away because the shelter, a private veterinary office that contracts with Wentzville, was closed for the holidays. He didn’t get Diesel home until Thursday and had to pay about $250 in boarding fees and a $50 fine for letting his dog run in Wentzville.
‘I WAS HYSTERICAL’
One of Campbell’s daughters contacted Dudding and asked if she would consider telling police the truth so they wouldn’t have to pay the $50 fine.
Dudding agreed and couldn’t believe it when police said she was going to be charged with a misdemeanor.
“I just immediately was in shock; I was hysterical,” she said. “I was at work, and he told me that I had to come down there and fill out an actual police report and get a fine.”
Campbell said he had called police and asked them to drop the charge.
“She did what she thought was right at the time, and that’s all you can ask of a person,” he said.
But Wentzville Police Maj. Paul West said it wasn’t that simple.
“She reported to us that this happened, and you don’t get to lie to the police,” he said.
Dudding said she didn’t maliciously mislead anyone.
West said Dudding could tell her story to a judge when she goes to municipal court Jan. 21, and he wouldn’t be surprised if the charge was dismissed.
If it isn’t, Campbell said, he will pay Dudding’s fine, which would be determined by a judge.
“She’s in trouble for helping my dog, so I’ve got to have her back on this,” he said.
The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department says the situation highlights the need for an animal shelter in the county, which currently has about 53,000 residents and is one of the fastest-growing counties in Missouri.
Sheriff’s Lt. Andy Binder said officers were faced almost daily with the dilemma of what to tell people when they call to report a stray animal. In 2013, the department took 367 such calls.
He said they told people to try to find a shelter that would take the animal — “or house the dog themselves and post something on our Facebook page.”
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