About Tamira Thayne

I used to be all these things below in a quest to leave the world a better place than I found it. Did I succeed? Depends who you ask, I’d reckon. But in this iteration of my life I’m a fun-loving, wandering nomad, who still writes a blog and some books, because there’s always still hope of contributing to the world in some fashion. Maybe.

Welcome to my blog. May you get a laugh and a little joy from its presence.

And if you go back far enough, you’ll see me trying to save the world. Or a few dogs. Whichever.

Tamira Thayne, was labeled the “animal lover'” in the family from an early age growing up on a farm in rural Pennsylvania. This love combined with a deep empathy for dogs—the most social of beings—ostracized to the end of a chain led her to form Dogs Deserve Better, Inc. in the fall of 2002. Ms. Thayne led the organization for 12.5 years, passing the reins of the organization to new leadership in March of 2015.

Dogs Deserve Better, a nonprofit dedicated to freeing the chained dogs and bringing them into the home and family, bought Michael Vick’s former dogfighting compound in Smithfield, Virginia, in 2011 and transformed it to the Good Newz Rehab Center for Chained and Penned Dogs.

Through her work for chained dogs, Tamira suffered in her quest to bring them freedom, but only a fraction as much as the dogs suffer. She has spent 877 hours chained to doghouses in front of State Capitols and other locations educating and advocating for better laws; she has spoken at over 75 venues nationwide about the issue and how we can be better friends to those who depend on us for their very existence; she has been arrested four times for helping dogs left in deplorable conditions and sometimes so ill they were unable to stand.

In 2012, Tamira was falsely charged with animal cruelty by Surry County, Virginia authorities in an attempt to destroy her reputation and force her and her organization from the former Vick property. The DA? The very same commonwealth attorney who let Vick walk from all cruelty charges, despite Vick’s own confession of the horrors inflicted on dogs who were poor fighters.

Thankfully, Surry County’s attempt was unsuccessful; Thayne spent 30 days in a hunger strike on the courthouse lawn across from the Commonwealth Attorney’s office to gain justice in a corrupt system. She collapsed on Day 30 and was hospitalized for two days due to systemic acidosis brought on by starvation. A lawsuit against Surry County Animal Control was settled in August 2015 for an undisclosed amount paid to Tamira Thayne and Dogs Deserve Better.

The county never apologized or took further responsibility for their actions, but Thayne is quoted as saying: “Those who commit evil generally don’t apologize for it.”

Since 2002, Tamira personally rescued and rehabilitated over 250 formerly chained and penned dogs; her organization, in the thousands. The dog pictured above, Banshee, became one of her favorites, and he loved her with a fierceness she still misses to this day. He died of lung cancer in late 2010. Watch the video of his last fetch here.

She is the author, editor, or illustrator of more than fifteen books to date, with more to come! Visit her amazon author page here: https://www.amazon.com/author/tamirathayne

Thayne also is the creator of the best-selling Rescue Angel tattoo license. If you too would like to license this art for your next tattoo, a single license is available for only $6.99. Visit this link to read more and purchase your license.