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March
7, 2007
Imagine
you get a flat tire in the Middle of Nowhere, and have to wait seven
hours for someone to bail you out. No worry: You've got that deck
of cards stashed in the glove compartment for just such emergencies.
You can get lost in solitaire till help comes.
You grab that deck and head for a shady spot under the nearest tree.
But on your way, you trip on a melon-sized rock. The deck flies
out of your hands and lands in...a muddy manhole.
Your only "toy" has been snapped out of your hands. The
next seven hours slowly drip by, minute by minute.
Many animals who are tied a lot suffer similar frustration and disappointment.
If they're lucky enough to be given a toy, often they accidentally
push it just out of reach. They yank and yank, but their tethers
won't stretch to reach the toy.
Hours, days, or months of boredom loom ahead--and all they can do
is stare at the one object that could give them pleasure.
It's so common for tethered dogs to lose their toys that Dr. Houpt
and her fellow researchers only gave toys to the penned dogs in
their study. They wrote,
"Toys were not provided to the tethered dogs because they would
lose the toys beyond the radius of the tether."
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