People never cease to amaze me with how cruel, stupid and uneducated they are. I live in a rural area so we don't have an ASPCA, or a humane society, and the cops are in charge of looking into animal abuse/neglect cases. This has resulted in them just taking them out farther into the country and turning them loose or worse. It's too bad but there seems to be nothing that I can do about it. I had a neighbor who tied a puppy up outside to a tree with only a crate as shelter; a bucket for water which being a puppy he knocked over, and no food for several days on end. The poor puppy was obviously too thin since I could see all of his ribs, backbone and pelvis from my window across the backyard. After giving the puppy a bucket of food for several days, and refilling his water I couldn't take it anymore, this poor furkid was so happy to see me, get pet and scarf down his food!
I work from 7pm-7am and am on call the 12hrs before I go in which is kind of handy. One night at an obscene hour their puppy came up missing and relocated itself to a metro animal rescue league an hour away (which happens to be the closest one). I know it wasn't legal but I couldn't stand to see him suffer anymore and with the *wonderful* law enforcement we have in my area it couldn't be left to them to handle. Unfortunately 98% of the people in my area are farmers and don't see dogs as anything other than property tieing them out all day and all night not giving them the life they deserve.
So yes it was wrong but in the end the right thing to do. I would rather do right by an animal and wrong by man than right by man and wrong by an animal.