Woman arrested after allegedly kicking dog in viral video
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
By Dennis Romero A Florida woman captured on video kicking a dog and choking it multiple times by pulling on a leash has been arrested on suspicion of felony animal cruelty, police said. The video shot Friday was posted to Facebook by concerned citizen Vincent Minutello and has racked up nearly 3,000 comments.
A man's voice can be heard admonishing the woman not to treat the dog that way. "You're choking him," the man's voice says. "You're hanging your dog." "I’m not hanging him," the woman on the video says.
Michelle A. Sieber, 26, was being held in lieu of $5,000 bail, according to booking information from the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. Sieber is the daughter of Rea Sieber, a Tarpon Springs city commissioner, and lives in an RV often parked behind her mother's wine shop,
NBC News affiliate WFLA of Tampa reported. Rea Sieber said by email Saturday night that her daughter has suffered from mental illness. "Michelle has had a lot of trauma and has been dealing with mental issues for the past 7-8 years," she said.
Rea Sieber said she has been subjected to "nasty comments" and harassment since the allegations against her daughter emerged Friday. "My integrity, my business and my service to the City of Tarpon Springs has been attacked," she said. "Michelle is still in jail and I cannot bail her out," she added. "There are many lies out there saying I’m using my influence to get her out. I spoke to her and she will be assigned an attorney and then wait to find out her fate."
Tarpon Springs police said they arrested Michelle Sieber on Friday in nearby Clearwater after being contacted by Minutello and viewing the video.
"The suspect is apparently transient and resides in her camper type vehicle with two dogs," Sgt. Robert Faugno said in a statement.
Rea Sieber said her daughter parked the RV behind her business but slept overnight in her home or in the homes of friends and her father. Police said Minutello also claimed his girlfriend saw the suspect throw the dog aggressively into her vehicle Thursday night. Michelle Sieber's dogs were seized and transferred to animal control officials, they said.
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Personally, I think that anyone who can do that to a dog, can do that to another person.
Very true!!!! How can anyone be mean to animals that arent being aggressive toward them? I feel you can know a lot about a person on how they treat animals. On another note, animals can tell a lot about a person too. If my Golden doesn't like someone, it's a sign
OK, that's not nearly as bad as I was afraid it would be when I saw "kicking dog" in the headline. She's obviously trying to train the dog, she just kinda bad at it. Unfortunately, a lot of people don't know much about how to train their dog.
What can look like kicking the dog (or even turn into actual kicking if you don't understand what you're doing) is a common technique for training a dog on leash. This lady probably saw somebody like Cesar Milan do this on TV like he does at the very beginning of the video below. The difference is Cesar just does a light tap to get the dog's focus back on the person walking him.
That doesn't explain the choking or her aggressively throwing the dog into her vehicle as reported in the article.
I thought it explained it pretty well. Be aware that I am only explaining it, not excusing or justifying it. A lot of people do the things you see this woman doing in the video, not because they are trying to be cruel to the animal, but because they think they are training it. That's just a fact.
Frankly, the same impulse drives many parents to be cruel to their kids. They think that if they just yell louder or hit more that the dog or the kid will just "get" them and do everything they want in precisely the way they want. This behavior is usually learned from somewhere and they don't know a better alternative. Many people, like the woman in this video, need to be taught how to persuade an animal in a way that isn't cruel. People aren't just born knowing how to do it.
And not just uncomfortable for the dog. It's dangerous for the dog. She could (maybe did) traumatize his airway.
She's a POS. Same thing should be done to her.
Jail seems like a pretty good place for her.
That seems unlikely. We can't even jail the thugs who beat Andy Ngo!
I knew I should’ve watched the video. Heartless bitch!! You can see at about the 36 second mark that the poor animal is trying to catch his breath after she lets him down.
A few days in jail a huge fine and never let her own another pet!!
Time, patience, treats and lots of good boy talk is all that is needed to train a dog. My German Shepherd doesn’t even need me to raise my voice, even when he is in hot pursuit of a squirrel, then I just clamp my hands and he stops. He follows voice and hand commands like a pro and never once was mistreated in the process.
What for? Is she a flight risk? (She might be if she lives in that RV) Is she a danger to the public? I can't believe anyone is being locked up only for yanking on their dog's leash. There has to be something else going on with her, like she's got priors, she's on probation, maybe she failed to appear previously, etc. Also 5K is a lot of bail for this. Like I said, there's more going on with her than just the dog.
I volunteer at an animal shelter 3 to 4 days a week. I work with big dogs (bully breeds) in getting them socialized, leash trained and finding them a home. Large dogs, especially older ones are the most difficult to get adopted.
This woman has no frickin idea on how to train a dog. It doesn't take pain and choking to get a dog trained.
She is damn lucky she is in Pinellas county FL and not Brevard county. The sheriff of Brevard county is my hero. You mistreat an animal in his county you're going to jail and will be charged with a felony.
I wish I could find the video he made regarding this. He was more than clear that he nor his deputies had any use for anyone that harmed an animal...The current two that I'm aware of were taken handcuffed and personally escorted by the Sheriff to jail. Both charged with felony animal cruelty.
One of the dogs I'm working with now is a two-year-old pit bull that was tied to a tree and used as target practice with pellet guns. We pulled a couple of dozen pellets out of his face. He lost one eye because of this.. Yet after all that pain he is the sweetest guy in the world. His other eye is damaged and will require eye drop 4 times a day for the rest of his life. That eye will no longer produce tears so the eye drys out.
It is beyond disgusting what so called humans do to animals.
This is one of the dogs I'm working with currently.
Carmella is a huge ham sandwich. As friendly as can be and just loves people including kids.
Is dog selective with other dogs.
she around 7 years old and was found wandering the streets.