Updated: 11/15/2007 12:25:18 AM
Eleven-year-old Haley Ham was never far from her golden retriever, Sam.
"He was really sweet, and he was very playful, and he loved playing ball," Ham said.
Haley may have adopted Sam, but it seems neighborhood dog Jessie adopted her.
"He was really nice, he was really loyal to me, and he, whenever I (went) on walks, he would always follow me," she said.
Soon, the threesome were inseparable. That is, until this past April, when Sam and Jessie got sick.
"(Sam) started, like, throwing up and everything and acting really sick, so we took him to the vet, but it actually turned out that someone had given him a stew with all sorts of poisonous stuff to dogs, like onions and chocolate, and also, antifreeze as the main ingredient," she said.
Antifreeze can smell and taste sweet to pets, but it is deadly.
Just a few tablespoons can kill a dog; a couple teaspoons can kill a cat.
The Humane Society of the United States estimates 10,000 animals die every year from antifreeze poisoning.
It's a figure that now includes both Sam and Jessie.
"It was really, really sad, because they were like my two best friends," Haley said.
The 11-year-old turned her mourning into a mission. She created a 4-H project about the dangers of antifreeze, wrote to area officials asking for changes in legislation, and created an online petition to garner support for her cause.
"There's a bittering agent, denatonium benzoate, and it can be put in for two cents a gallon, and it makes (antifreeze) taste very bad to animals and children, so they don't eat it or drink it," she said.
State Senator Raymond Finney, R-Maryville, says he's on board and plans to sponsor a bill during the next legislative session.
Haley hopes to be there. "I don't want any other animals to have to suffer this, because it's a very terrible death, and also for justice for Sam and Jessie," she said. Three other states already have laws requiring antifreeze companies to add a bittering agent to their products.
Last year, a national bill never made it into law.
