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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."
About the writer:
The Bee's Cynthia Hubert can be reached at (916)321-1082 or
chubert@sacbee.com.
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