Folks,
If you
haven’t already, please call or fax your Calif
legislator (look up at
www.leginfo.ca.gov or
www.legislature.ca.gov
to
vote for SB 1578, which, if passed, would make it a misdemeanor to
tether a dog to a fixed object for more than three hours a day.
To read today’s article in the SACRAMENTO BEE,
go to this website:
http://www.sacbee.com/content/lifestyle/ (The article is also
copied below in case you have to sign in.)
The
article mentions one group (of four) opposing the measure: The Animal
Council. However, Dogs Deserve Better has done a great job in
advancing this bill, along with other dedicated animal welfare groups.
Letters to the editor, in support of the bill and in support of humane
treatment of dogs (and all animals) would be
warranted. You can email directly at
opinion@sacbee.com or you can send a letter via their website:
http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/letters/form/story/14234264p-15055889c.html
Please ask others to
support the legislation as well. Thanks, Marilyn Jasper
Danger on a chain
Animal advocates
say tethering dogs leads to misery, aggression - and perils for people
By Cynthia Hubert
-- Bee Staff Writer
Published
12:01 am PDT
Monday, June 26, 2006
Guard Dog, the
surly canine character in the popular comic strip "Mutts," is a
pitiable creature. Chained to a stake all
day, he's got a fierce demeanor, an angry
scowl and a deep need to be loved.
"How do you guard
against loneliness?" he asks.
Animal advocates
say life is not much better for real dogs that live their lives on
chains or ropes.
"They are like
ticking time bombs," said Gina Spadafori,
a nationally syndicated pet columnist based in Sacramento and author
of "Dogs for Dummies" (For Dummies, $21.99, 408
pages).
A proposed law
making its way through the state Legislature would help change that,
Spadafori and others said.
If it passes,
California would become one of the first states in the country to make
it illegal to chain or tether dogs to trees, poles or other stationary
objects for long periods of time.
The measure, SB
1578, is authored by Sen. Alan Lowenthal,
D-Long Beach.
It would make it a
misdemeanor to tether a dog to a fixed object for more than three
hours a day. Violators would face fines of
up to $1,000 per dog and six months in jail.
The bill has cleared the Senate and is
scheduled to be heard by an Assembly committee Tuesday morning.
Its official
backers include 32 groups, from the California Animal Control
Directors Association to the Doris Day Animal League.
It has four opponents, including a Millbrae group called The
Animal Council that says the measure is too
broad.
"This bill isn't
just about chaining. It's about tethering,
which is far more comprehensive," said Sharon Coleman, speaking for
the council. "Yes, tethering can be done in
a cruel or unsafe matter," Coleman said, "but this bill goes too far."
Others said the
proposed law would go a long way toward protecting both chained
animals and the people who encounter them.
Dogs are pack
animals by nature and become neurotic and miserable when deprived of
interaction with other canines and people, said
Spadafori, whose column appears on Page 3 of Saturday Scene.
Eventually, she said, they tend lash out at
whoever or whatever crosses their paths.
A study by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that chained dogs are
nearly three times more likely than untethered
canines to bite humans. Often,
it is their owners who become victims.
"Dogs are social
animals, and when you isolate them they don't recognize their family
as family," said Spadafori.
"They start protecting the pathetic little piece of turf they
have, and that's when problems begin. When
you read about dog bites that cause injuries, it's often young, male,
unsocialized animals living on chains."
Tethering dogs for
hours at a time interferes with their natural "flight or fight"
response, said Adam Goldfarb, issues
specialist for the Humane Society of the United States.
"If they're on a
chain and they feel threatened, their flight option is gone," he said.
"Their only option is to fight, and it doesn't matter to them
if the threat is another animal, an adult or a child."
Youngsters are
most often the victims of serious dog attacks, statistics show.
Between 1965 and
2001, 431 people in the United States died from dog attacks, according
to researcher Karen Delise, who wrote a
book on the subject. Children younger than
12 represented 79 percent of the victims. A
quarter of fatal attacks were inflicted by chained dogs,
Delise reports.
Each year,
countless others suffer injuries serious enough to require medical
care, said Tammy Grimes, whose Tipton, Pa.,
group Dogs Deserve Better documents such cases.
Last month in
Tennessee, a toddler was badly injured when a neighbor's golden
retriever, which was tethered to a cable attached to a deck, attacked
her. In April, a chained shepherd in
Kentucky ripped off a preschooler's nose.
In March, a Missouri toddler died after his uncle's
Rottweiler, chained in a garage, mauled
him.
"These are the
kinds of things that happen when you isolate dogs," said Grimes.
"In some ways, they are the neediest animals on the planet.
If you treat them with no respect, that's what you'll get
back."
Dogs Deserve
Better is lobbying for passage of the California law.
"It would break new ground for the rest of us," Grimes said.
SB 1578 would
restrict tethering while still allowing people to attach dogs to
"running lines" and pulleys. It would allow
for dogs to be restrained in parks and
other recreational areas, and allow for pet owners to tether their
animals "for a reasonable period of time."
If passed, the
California legislation would be the first statewide measure of its
kind in the country, said Goldfarb.
A handful of cities and counties have ordinances with similar
language, and several states vaguely ban the practice of "cruelly
restraining" animals.
"We think it's
great," Goldfarb said.
"We support any legislation that restricts or limits the
long-term tethering or chaining of dogs."
The opposing
group, The Animal Council, believes the California measure would set a
bad precedent.
Coleman, an
attorney who owns a show dog, a Dalmatian named Roscoe, noted that
tethers can be used for legitimate purposes
including training.
"Tethering as a
method of housing has been used in various circumstances over the
centuries," she said. "Sledding people use
them. People with hunting dogs use them.
These are not all brain-fried druggies with a bunch of pit
bulls chained up for nefarious purposes."
But
Spadafori said that tethering dogs for
hours at a time almost never is appropriate.
"I don't have any
problem with you putting your dog on a runner or a tie for awhile,"
she said. "But we're talking about chaining
him up for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, until some kid wanders
over and gets nailed."
Dogs
have long been used for property
protection, she said, but those days are fading fast.
"If you want a
burglar alarm, get one," said Spadafori.
"If you have a vicious dog, work with a vet or animal
behaviorist to deal with it. If you want a
family pet that's safe around your children, make sure it's safe and
socialized."
Hector
Cazares, the city of Sacramento's animal
care services manager, also supports the proposed law.
Under current regulations, Cazares
said, his officers cannot seize a dog on a chain unless the
circumstances are clearly abusive.
"If it's out there
in 110-degree weather with no water or is starving, we'll break it
loose and take it," he said. The proposed
law would allow officers to seize dogs that might be a danger to
themselves or others simply because they are
tethered for long periods.
Cazares
noted that unsupervised, tethered dogs are chronic barkers.
"They develop a kind of psychosis that comes with protecting
their turf," he said. They can become
entangled in their tethers and suffer leg and neck injuries and even
strangulation. "We've had people bring us
dogs with chains that are totally embedded in their necks," he said.
Under the proposed
law, Cazares stressed, animal control
officers would respond strictly to complaints, and would not troll
neighborhoods looking for violators. "We
would be getting reports from people who love animals and don't want
to see them suffer," he said.
"My feeling is
that if you have a dog and you decide that its life is going to be
relegated to the end of a 6-foot chain, you really don't deserve a
dog," Cazares said.
"If that little
circle is the dog's whole life, you're looking at a very dangerous
animal. The bottom line is, if you have a
dog you'd better take care of it."
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