Ban Tethering: Law Can Prevent More Terrible Tragedies
Editorial, The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer
January 16, 2004, When a
child dies a violent death, the whole community feels the pain. Throughout
this area today, there is great sadness for the terrible tragedy that befell
a 3-year-old boy in Anderson Creek Tuesday. After the mourning, there should
be anger. It was a preventable tragedy - preventable, that is, if the state
or local communities would revise animal-control ordinances that are mired
in an unenlightened past.
Little Nathan Roy Hill wandered into a neighbor's yard Tuesday, where he
encountered the chained, mixed-breed pit bull that killed him. A "Beware of
the Dog" sign is fastened to a tree in the dog's yard, but that couldn't
protect a guileless child.
Nathan's death isn't unprecedented in North Carolina. In 1999, 2-year-old
Kimberly Renee Arriola was attacked and killed by a chained Siberian husky
in a neighbor's yard in Sampson County. Just over a year ago, 2 1/2-year-old
Samantha Fuller of Roxboro died when she got too close to a neighbor's
chained German shepherd. Other, similar incidents have been reported around
the state.
The incidents are a demonstration of a simple correlation between the
practice of tethering dogs and dogs' aggressiveness. The U.S. Centers for
Disease Control has studied the causes of dog bites and found that tethered
dogs are nearly three times more likely to attack people, causing serious
injury or death. It's reasonable to extrapolate from that point: If the
chained dog is of a normally aggressive breed - like pit bulls - the
potential for danger is even greater. There is overwhelming evidence that
regular or continuous tethering makes dogs neurotic, anxious and aggressive.
The practice is inhumane and unsafe. Dogs left outside and unsupervised -
especially aggressive dogs - should be confined by fencing or other means.
Since 1997, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has banned most forms of
tethering in any facilities that are regulated by its Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service. That includes many breeding, wholesale and
research facilities.
Some tethering is banned by North Carolina law. But the regulation largely
applies to pit bull breeders who use heavy chains "grossly in excess of the
size necessary to restrain the dog." The law is so vague that it is largely
unenforceable.
New Hanover County, however, has banned all tethering. Fayetteville briefly
did the same, when it adopted a new animal-control ordinance in 2001. But
the City Council, apparently more willing to risk children's lives than face
constituent anger, caved in to political pressure shortly thereafter and
removed the tethering ban.
A North Carolina House study committee has been holding hearings on the
state's animal welfare statutes this winter and will recommend changes to
the House when it returns to session later this year. One of those
recommendations should be a statewide ban on dog tethering.
If the state fails to act, we hope the counties in this region will follow
New Hanover's wise lead and amend their animal-control ordinances to ban
tethering. There is a clear and obvious threat to public safety, and it's
government's obligation to act.
