An Apple Valley, California, woman was forced to confront a driver last Friday after she discovered that the woman was dragging a dog from the bumper of her vehicle.
Tammy Jarrard was on a school run with her 10-year-old daughter when she turned down Milpas Road and was flagged down by a distressed driver. After stopping her car, she asked the woman if she was OK, and the upset driver said she had just seen a dog being dragged down the adjacent Desert View Road.
As the woman tried to connect with 911, Jarrard continued down the road to investigate. “I started driving down the road, and I saw the white Tahoe,” Jarrard told Newsweek. “I slammed on my brakes, hit my truck into reverse and backed up.”
Getting out of her car, Jarrard rushed to confront the driver. “I didn’t even consider the dog being alive, to be honest,” she said. “So I didn’t rush over to the dog—I went to the lady first.
NEWSWEEK NEWSLETTER SIGN-UP >
“She was disgusting. Like the lowest form. She said, ‘I didn’t tie that, somebody must have tied that dog to my bumper.’ We started going back and forth, and she said she had to go to work and to get out of her way. She kept saying, ‘You want a dog? You got a dog. Take the dog,'” Jarrard said.
Altered pictures show the injured dog rescued by an Apple Valley, California, resident after the animal was dragged behind a vehicle.
Before she could drive away, Jarrard quickly took a picture of the driver’s license plate. When the woman Tahoe drove away, Jarrard saw the dog move.
“I turned around to look at the dog, and she looked at me and kind of sat up a little bit,” Jarrard said. “I thought: Oh my God, she’s alive. I started walking over to her, not sure if she’ll be aggressive or not, and she was the sweetest thing.”
NEWSWEEK SUBSCRIPTION OFFERS >
As Jarrard slowly approached and started stroking the dog’s head, the badly injured pup locked eyes with her.
“At that point, the lady who had flagged me down was coming back down the road, and she was on the phone with 911. We gave the license plate number and our contact information,” Jarrard said.
Jarrard and her daughter wrapped the dog in a blanket and took her to the nearest veterinarian, but the doctor refused to see her.
“I was like, ‘What else can I do?'” Jarrard said. “So I took her to the shelter—they were amazing.”
After the animal shelter took responsibility for the dog, it took her to a vet’s office, where she was treated and remained over the weekend.
A spokesperson for San Bernardino County Animal Care, a subdivision of the county’s health department, said an investigation is underway, adding, “The dog is hospitalized and is in stable condition at this time.”
“I can’t stop thinking about her,” Jarrard said. “She was [dragged] a long way. I don’t even know how she is alive.”
