Over 70,000 people have signed a petition urging As I Lay Dying frontman Tim Lambesis to be investigated for alleged animal cruelty.
The petition has been organised by Care2 and can be seen here. It makes reference to a video that surfaced in January that appears to show Lambesis mistreating his dog as he tries to get it to go outside.
The 30-second clip showed two separate instances of Lambesis apparently being upset with the dog, including one where he appears to kick the dog. He then appears to strike the dog before seemingly threatening the animal with closed fists.
“Sign the petition to demand justice and intensive psychological treatment,” the petition site reads. “The frontman for band As I Lay Dying was outside of his home when apparently he became overcome by rage and frustration and began violently wailing on his poor, trembling, frightened dog. It’s clear that this man’s violent tendencies didn’t decrease after his attempts to have his wife killed.”
The video emerged in January alongside other clips of Lambesis apparently in angry altercations with his wife Dany. In one, he is seen flipping a table that his wife was sitting at. Then, as she gets up to walk away, he attempts to intercept her and repeatedly punches himself while she asks him to stop. Another seems to show the couple in a bedroom having an argument although the video contained no audio.
Those leaked videos followed on from a series of posts in November, in which Lambesis accused his wife of domestic violence and alleged that she timed her public attacks on him after he served her with divorce papers.
“There is currently a restraining order and a domestic violence investigation being filed against Dany Norris (formerly Lambesis),” he wrote. “Anything she is saying now is to distract people away from that to instead focus on my own inappropriate (but not illegal) reactions to these anxiety inducing interactions.”
Lambesis was previously sentenced to six years in prison for plotting to kill his ex-wife back in 2014. He pleaded guilty to paying a police officer posing as a hitman $1,000 (£630) to kill his then-wife, Meggan Lambesis. After being released in December 2016, Lambesis took to the band’s official Facebook page to post a lengthy statement, “apologising to everyone” for his actions.
The vocalist then reunited with the San Diego band in 2018, who released their first new song in six years with ‘My Own Grave’ and announced details of a homecoming show that summer. Longtime guitarist Nick Hipa would leave the band in 2020, with drummer Jordan Mancino and bassist Josh Gilbert following suit in 2022.
Bassist Ryan Neff, guitarist Ken Susi and drummer Nick Pierce – all of whom joined the band in 2022 – announced in October last year that they were also quitting, citing “personal morals”.
That was then followed by the departure of guitarist Phil Sgrosso, who had been part of the San Diego metalcore group since 2003, leaving Lambesis as the sole remaining member. At the time, Sgrosso said the departures were due to the band no longer offering “a healthy or safe environment for anyone involved – whether creatively, personally, or professionally. After witnessing some concerning patterns of behaviour, I’ve realised that I can no longer, in good conscience, enable further actions that could negatively affect anyone working within this space.”
Then, last November, Lambesis’s side project Austrian Death Machine lost their drummer Brandon Short, who announced his departure on Instagram writing: “For the sake of my mental well-being and personal beliefs, and in light of the recent developments surrounding the As I Lay Dying camp and Tim, this has become an inevitable step for me.”
Short continued: “The repeated promises, the endless cycle of ‘I’ll do better’ – words that once gave me hope – have turned into a broken record that has brought no real change. Instead, I found myself trapped in a pattern that eroded my trust and my well-being. This cycle has reached into my personal life, affecting my mental health in ways I can no longer ignore.”
For help, support and advice regarding domestic abuse, visit Refuge here or call the freephone, 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247.
