Date: Wed, 2 Oct 2013 08:39:56 -0400
From: Whatzup
Subject: What the Anti-Tethering Crowd is telling our commissioners
Wondering what the Anti-tethering crowd is telling our Chatham County Commissioners?
Below is information from the minutes of June 17th County Commissioners’ Work Session.
If you read the following you will see that the problem is NOT tethering.
Under CURRENT county ordinance, the people in the examples mentioned CAN be charged with animal abuse right NOW. We don’t need to ADD new laws. How about enforcing the ones already in place?
[My observations are in brackets]
From
http://chathamnc.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=M&ID=242630&GUID=BFF39DE5-EF7E-48BC-AD6D-A184301A5390
CHATHAM COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
MINUTES OF JUNE 17, 2013 WORK SESSION
PAGE 2 OF 20 PAGES
*PUBLIC INPUT SESSION*
Pattie Justice, 148 Wall Road, Goldston, NC, voiced her concern with regard to a non-tethering law in Chatham County. She stated that they find dogs chained with no food, water, or shelter; that sometimes they are on * short* leashes and can’t move; and that Chatham County does not have good laws and something has to be done.
Robin Luker, 447 Trails End, Siler City, NC, Director of Dogs Off Chains, stated that they go out every day on outreach. She stated that she has a full-time job, but does this in her spare time. It has become her life to protect the dogs of Chatham County. She sees dogs chained and tethered dogs. She begs people to spay and neuter so the dogs aren’t backyard breeding. She takes dogs to the vet to be spayed and find out they have heart worms. *Ninety-eight percent* of tethered dogs are not medically treated by a veterinarian. They are selling sick puppies with the parvovirus so they also treat puppies. They are trying to get more control over tethered dogs so they are not tethered during the day. A lot of times [how much is a lot?] tethered or chained dogs have turned over their water bowls and are out in one hundred degree heat [Don’t dogs in pens also turn over their water bowls? Aren’t dogs in pens also out in one hundred degree weather?] where no one is home for eight or more hours. They have seen dogs with embedded collars in their necks where they have had to be taken to the vet and surgically removed. They are allowed to go back to their owners because there is no place to put them. [Maybe we need to look at expanding the current animal shelter facilities?] They try to avoid letting Animal Control [So Robin wants to pass another ordinance which will do no good, because she and others don’t inform Animal Control about the current problems] know about some of the cases as it is more about educating the people that this is not the way dogs should be. With fences, dogs are more protected from outside predators. [What percentage of dogs are attacked by outside predators? Male dogs have been known to climb over fences to get to females in heat.] They have built over sixty fences and have spayed or neutered over one hundred dogs in the last four years. She stated that they need the help of the community and the Board of Commissioners to pass the tethering law. [We don’t need a NEW anti-tethering law. We need enforcement of the CURRENT county and state animal abuse ordinances.]
[Guardians of Angels Board of Directors member] Abbie Sherman, 296 NC 902, Pittsboro, NC, stated that she has worked at several animal hospitals and also with the pit bull rescue. She stated that tethering is *very* evil [Is ALL tethering is VERY evil? Is tethering more or less VERY evil that let’s say… drunk driving?]. It turns what would otherwise be sweet animals into monsters as they are not properly socialized. They are tortured by the elements [Dogs in pens can be tortured by elements]. If you know what hail does to a car, you can imagine what it does to a living thing. They are a lot more likely to have self-inflicted wounds from stress as well as wounds inflicted by other animals, if not from their caretakers. They are often neglected and abused, starved, and dehydrated. [And you chose to not report this, just like Robin Lurker did in her statement above?] She stated that she had found dogs that some of them were left for dead and chained to trees. The one that was still alive next to the dead dog was so emotionally damaged there was no saving it. They are a lot more likely to attack people because they get territorial and are not properly socialized [Dogs left unattended in pens can also suffer]. Most often the people who are attacked are children because they are not aware of the risks.
[New anti-tethering laws and stuffing dogs into pens as suggested by the Dogs Off Chains crowd will not solve the problems of neglected animals. We have an enforcement problem. Laws are in place and they are not being enforced.]