City Urged to Adopt Ban on Chaining Dogs
www.news8austin.com
December 20, 2006, AUSTIN, TEXAS - Austin is one step closer to establishing a new dog chaining ordinance.
The city's Animal Advisory Commission met Tuesday night to talk about the language of the ordinance that would ban the chaining or tethering of unattended dogs.
"The purpose of this ordinance is to prevent chaining anyway. While chaining is cruel to animals, but in addition to that it makes them very aggressive and territorial because they have just a small plot," Patt Nordyke of the Texas Federation of Humane Societies said.
Current law allows dogs to be chained for up to eight hours. Research shows a chained dog is almost three times as likely to bite.
A new ordinance would require any dog left unattended outside must be in an enclosure at least 150 square feet - that's a 10 by 15 kennel. This would prevent dog owners from keeping dogs in small kennels for long periods of time.
The group Chain Free Austin is behind the ordinance. Eleven other U.S. cities have banned chaining dogs, including two in Texas.
“These are companion animals, they want companionship. They don't want to be stuck on a chain and often you'll find that dogs that are out there on a chain are basically forgotten and occasionally somebody feeds them,” Nordyke said.
The city council could consider the ordinance by next month.
