Protesters chain themselves to dog houses to protest tethering of pets

Protesters chain themselves to dog houses to protest tethering of pets
Published: Monday, July 2, 2007 | 11:20 AM ET
Canadian Press

REDMOND, Wash. (AP) - Seven dog lovers who oppose the chaining of pets spent part of the weekend tethered to dog houses and poles as their canine friends frolicked in an off-leash area of a park.

"We do it for the animals because they can't speak for themselves and we want people to know that it is actually a form of cruelty," said Susan Hartland, who handed out fliers to passing dog owners Saturday while tied by a rope to a lawn stake.

Hartland was in Marymoor Park as a representative for Dogs Deserve Better, the Pennsylvania-based group that organizes an annual event called "Unchain the 50."

It was the fifth year for the protest, meant to raise awareness of what the group believes are the detrimental effects of chaining dogs.

The group aims to have at least one person in each state live chained to a doghouse for eight to 24 hours to raise awareness the damage tethering can cause a dog. They advocate laws limiting dog tethering.

Citing statistics from U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, advocates contend a chained dog is 2.8 times more likely to bite than an unchained dog.

Chained dogs also typically lack adequate veterinary care, food, water or shelter, and can develop infections and severe wounds when their collars become embedded in their necks, they add.

Wearing her dog's old collar, Leslie Kenter chained herself to a doghouse that belonged to her dog, Gus. Kenter believes a state limit on tethering would have saved Gus, a German shepherd mix she rescued but later euthanized because of his untreatable aggressive behaviour.

"He longed for love and companionship and he received neither," Kenter said in a flier about her dog. "As hard as he tried, Gus could not let go of being protective - this is what he had learned during the years he was chained."
© The Canadian Press, 2007

Wonderful!
I wish more people had this mindset. Would save a lot of lonely "outside dogs."

I LOVE what Dogs Deserve Better does for dogs, what a great cause! Their chain-off is a really unique event that certainly gets them a lot of press.

I wanted to campaign for that here but my mom wouldn't let me and I don't think they would allow a 14 year old to stay 8 - 24 hours outside.

I love what they do though.

One of my friends, Marion, did the chain off, this past weekend. She had some horrible responses to her actions. But, she hoped for some good to come out of it, too.

Here is her post from "Just Dogs" on MSN

Woman wears dog collar, chain in protest
By Gerry Bellett, Vancouver Sun
Published: Friday, June 29, 2007
It's been a busy week in the zany world of doggy politics. It opened with news of vigilante dog snatchers targeting allegedly irresponsible dog owners across the Lower Mainland and ended with Marion Hewko standing with a chain around her neck at a busy Chilliwack intersection.

Hewko described her vigil - chained for 13 hours today to a post at the intersection of Lickman Road and Luckakuck Way under the Maple Leaf and the banner Dogs Deserve Better - as an act of solidarity with abused and chained dogs everywhere.

It bemused many passing motorists, as the intersection is a busy local route and lies close to a turnoff from Highway 1.


Chained to a metal pole for 13 hours in Chilliwack, Marion Hewko kills time with rescue dog Patty.
Darren McDonald/Chilliwack Times
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"Some people give me the thumbs up. Some others looked disgusted, but they're probably the guilty ones who keep their dogs tied up. I just hope they go away and think about it," Hewko said seven hours into her protest, which began at 5 a.m.

"If just one dog is untied and treated properly because of this, it's worth it," she said.

B.C. is chock-a-block with advocacy groups, societies and organizations concerned with the welfare of dogs. Now, there's apparently a direct action gang whose members brazenly pose as animal welfare officials as they steal supposedly abused animals.

On Monday, a man and a woman drove up to a Burnaby home and presented phony papers to the owners of Tommy, an American Labrador puppy, before snatching the dog.

While guerrilla tactics appeal to some in the dog welfare movement, Hewko has no time for them.

"I really want to stress that we don't believe in stealing dogs. Hell, no, that's wrong," she said at the end of a nine-metre tether.

Hewko organized the B.C. and national branches of Dogs Deserve Better in January, after searching for a way to better the lot of man's oldest companion. The organization was founded in the U.S. to end the suffering endured by dogs kept on chains or penned for life. This weekend marks the beginning of the society's annual "chain-off" week, when members will chain themselves to doghouses across the U.S. to make their point.

"I just love dogs, but it used to irk me seeing people with dogs loose in the back of pickup trucks in real danger of getting hurt and seeing dogs tied up," said Hewko, who works for the Chilliwack Society for Community Living.

By noon Friday, she was hungry and cold - and bored.

"Now, I know just how a dog feels being tied up like this. They get bored and they will get angry. I got myself tangled up with the post just moving around but I could undo it. A dog who gets caught around a tree can't.

"Dogs are social animals who want to belong to a pack. Keeping them alone, ostracizing them from family and friends, that's just cruel," she said.

Most municipalities have bylaws forbidding the chaining of dogs, but Hewko says many people living in the rural areas of the Fraser Valley don't care.

"You can drive by farms and see dogs chained up all the time or kept in pens. You'll find German shepherds kept chained in the yard outside and a little Chihuahua kept inside as a pet. Why is that? I just hope people will think about what they are doing and stop abusing their animals."

The group raises money - not huge amounts, she admits, but enough to help with rescue work. A donations jar by her side only had $5 in it by noon.

"That was from a co-worker," Hewko admitted. "But I did take pledges and so far I've raised $140."

While Hewko tried to stay comfortable for 13 hours with a chain round her neck, her own pet, Maggie, a two-year-old golden Labrador, was at home in comfort.

"She's probably asleep on my bed," she said.

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© Vancouver Sun 2007

It was flipping horrible..I was stuck, I felt humiliated and alone..so now Iknow how a dog feels, and I feel even more terrible..
At 6.30 my friend came with her 4 dogs and that made it a bit better..I had to go pee so bad at that time, but I was not about to leave my post. By 8 AM I was finally able to use the washroom, andback on the chain.
Then the people came from our local TV station, photographers and newspapers. More co-workers than towns people came which was nice.
However a man had shown up early in the morning, and he was questioning me for a while, I asked him if he was a reporter and he said NO, his dog was stolen last week or something, and he thought it had to do with me..it felt like an interrogation..anyway he left and soon thereafter another woman came because her chained dog was stolen last week, also a chained one, and she also thinks I have something to do with this..It turned quite nasty, I felt harrassed and intimidated by her, and asked her a few times to give me personal space, which she did not do..I called the cops, but because she was not uttering threats there is nothing anyone can do..she has the same right as I do to sit there..( which is true)..anyway, this woman seems to be weird...and I phoned Randy who came and at 2 PM I was getting scared as this woman set up camp 10 feet away from me..
I went home, feeling like total loser..so this is a bit my update...a lot more happened after this, but let me not bore you with the details..
Seattle is in the planning I think..still..
Marion

Logan, tell your friend that I think she's a wondeful person, and brave to
do this for something she believes in. :) Indianapolis passed some new
laws recently & banning dogs chained 24/7 was one of them. It's time all
cities & states forbid it too.