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For
those who work to educate people on the cruelty and danger of keeping
dogs on chains, the tragic news in April of two children killed
by chained dogs within days of each other came as a sad shock but
no real surprise.
After
all, incidents of this kind are anything but rare. More than 30
times in the last 18 months, a child has been killed by a dog kept
on a chain, according to the group Dogs Deserve Better.
"We
know that if you isolate a social species, bad things happen,"
says Stephanie Shain of the Humane Society of the United States
(HSUS). "You chain a dog and their whole world becomes this
pathetic little circle. Little by little, they go crazy.
"One
day, a child comes into that circle. You've removed the ability
for a dog's fight-or-flight reaction. For the dog, it's either,
'I have to protect this pathetic little circle' or 'I'm tethered
and I can't get away.'
Despite
the spate of tragic deaths, in most cases a child is lucky enough
to escape with a scare or a minor bite. For dogs, there is no such
luck: Either the misery and loneliness continues, or they are put
down for the aggression caused by the practice of chaining.
"It
has been going on for a long time," said Tammy Sneath Grimes,
founder of Dogs Deserve Better. "Even my mother remembers being
bitten by a chained dog. The difference is socialization. Once I
started fostering these dogs, they became so easily adjusted. They
become part of the family."
A
lifelong animal lover, Grimes started her fight against chaining
when she moved next to a family who kept a chained dog in their
yard. The dog was named "Worthless," and that's just how
they treated him.
"I
watched him on a chain every day for six years," said Grimes.
"No one was ever with him, and he got no love or attention.
I used to sneak over to pet and feed him. Finally they told me I
couldn't do that anymore."
She
ended up with the dog, renamed him Bo, and started her group. As
a mother of small children, she is driven to educate others on chaining,
not only for the dogs but also for the children who may be endangered
by a neglected family pet.
"It's
a cultural thing," she says. "People grew up with a chained
outdoor dog, and so they chain their dogs outside. They're often
hostile when I talk to them about it. Sometimes they lie and say
the dog comes in at night when the neighbors know better. The fact
that they feel they have to lie about it tells me they know on some
level it's wrong."
Some
animal advocates feel the answer is to pass ordinances against chaining,
or at least to limit the number of hours per day a dog can be on
a chain. The HSUS is developing model legislation, and some communities
have already passed anti-chaining ordinances.
"The
shocking part is anyone ever thought it could work, putting a social
creature on chain," said Shain of the HSUS.
Activists
are hoping that something good will come out of the recent tragedies.
Perhaps people who never cared about how miserable their chained
dog is will do something about it now that they know the practice
can put their children at risk, too.
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