Animal Cruelty Petition Filed Against Tim Lambesis

Back in January, outrage spread across the metal community when disgraced and apparently impossible to work with As I Lay Dying frontman Tim Lambesis was seen in a video of him striking his dog. Two home security videos, in fact, were released online that allegedly showed the vocalist being a dick to his pet before physically striking and kicking it. It was new super shitbag territory for a dude that historically did some super shitbag things.

Now, months after the fact, the Care2 organization has filed a petition to “demand justice and intensive psychological treatment” for Lambesis. The petition makers don’t mince any words, either. It lists Lambesis’ misdeeds, stating that he’s a “lead singer for a metalcore band served a prison sentence from 2014 to 2016 for hiring a hitman to kill his wife, from whom he was estranged.” Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.

For those that haven’t seen what I’m talking about, the footage in question shows two specific instances. The first clip shows Lambesis’ roided out ass pissed off about something as he walks through his home. His dog momentarily gets in his way and with his shitty temper, it looks like he goes out of his way to kick the dog. The second half of the clip shows him actively striking his dog to get him off the couch and then flexing at it in an aggressive manner with balled fists before letting it outside.

If that was the only thing we’d ever seen of Lambesis being a piece of shit, it would be bad. But remember, he’s gotten multiple attempts at rehabbing his image after trying to hire an assassin to kill his wife back in 2013. He was eventually convicted a year later and sentenced to six years in prison, but got out after only two years. Yes, he served time and he should be able to return to society. If the story ended there with him coming back with As I Lay Dying and he proved to be a changed man, that would be the end of it.

Instead, we got not one, but two major lineup implosions within As I Lay Dying over the last couple years, with the most recent one involving guitarists Phil Sgrosso and Ken Susi, bassist Ryan Neff, and drummer Nick Pierce being the most telling because they all basically said the same thing — Lambesis is the problem. That whole thing was followed up with leaked footage making the rounds of him being shitty to his now ex-wife and now we’ve got the aforementioned situation with his dog.

With all that now in the past, the petition is demanding that Lambesis receive “dedicated psychotherapy treatment,” ordering California authorities to push for intensive mental health counseling for Lambesis.

As of the time of this posting, the petition’s garnered 68,956 supporters out of its 70,000 supporter goal. It’s unsure if a petition of this nature would have any sway and actually force the mental health evals and whatnot. Only time will tell if anything comes of this.