Anti-Chaining Message Planned in County Where Boy Fatally Mauled
www.wvec.com
April 14, 2005, VIRGINIA -- A billboard advising dog owners to not chain their dogs will rise in this rural community where a 4-year-old boy was fatally attacked by his family's chained mixed-breed dog. The message from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals will read: "To keep your family safe, chain your door, not your dog."
Some animal advocates say chaining a dog makes an animal more aggressive. Sunday, Robbie Shafer was fatally mauled by his family's Rottweiler-shepherd dog, which was chained in the family's yard.
Dan Paden, a cruelty case worker in PETA's Norfolk headquarters, said Thursday the group is mindful of the family's pain. "My heart goes out to them," he said. But he added that "it's even more tragic if we don't take a lesson from it."
Paden said the billboard will not be near the Shafer home and he also has written Orange officials, urging them to adopt an ordinance that prohibits chaining dogs or limiting the length of time that a dog can be tethered.
"The fact is, an unprovoked attack is a calling card of a chained dog," Paden said.
In Virginia, only Norfolk, Virginia Beach and Northampton County restrict chaining, according to PETA. Norfolk and Northampton limit chaining to 12 cumulative hours in a 24-hour period, Paden said, while Virginia Beach limits the practice to three hours.
Chaining restrictions have spread across the nation in the past few years. In early 2003, about 40 localities had adopted such ordinances, Paden said. Today, 68 localities have them on the books, he said.
The billboard is part of a broader campaign that Paden said started at 10 locations in the Hampton Roads area in mid-March.
Chaining dogs has been condemned as inhumane by the Humane Society of the United States, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Paden said a study found chained dogs are 2.8 times more likely to attack, a response of its territorial and "fight or flight" instincts.
Since April 2004, 23 children 10 and under were attacked in the United States by chained dogs, and there were fatal, Pedan said. He said he has been attacked by chained dogs in North Carolina while attempting to deliver dog houses to the animals' owners.
Orange authorities say Robbie apparently wandered to an area where the family's 64-pound dog, named Chance, was tethered to a 20-foot logging chain. The child had been unattended for less than one minute, his parents said.
Laura Shafer had stepped into the kitchen of their mobile home to get her son a drink when she heard him screaming. She managed to pull their dog off the boy, but it was too late. Robbie suffered a broken neck and died at the scene.
Authorities said they found no sign of negligence and that charges will not be filed in the case. The dog has been euthanized.
