Ashland Pets At the End of Their Ropes
www.ashlandfreepress.com
March, 2006, ASHLAND, OREGON --
When Karen Leitner looks out her bedroom window in Ashland, sometimes her heart sinks. “I see a neighborhood dog tethered to a doghouse. I've lived here about ten months, and I've only seen her off the rope once,” she says. She looks out at the dog about twice a week.
Apparently, the dog isn't even taken off the tether at night. “At night she jumps onto the top of her doghouse and barks and barks and barks,” says Leitner, who's trained canines for about 24 years and operates The Delightful Dog Training Service. She's heard a neighbor say, half-jokingly, that she'd like to shoot the dog.
Leitner continues, “The dog is saying to the world, 'I want to be free of this tether.' Many dogs bark incessantly when they're continually tethered. They're filled with anxiety. Many of them turn into biters because they go into fear mode and lose their trust in people.” In at least several surveys, chained dogs were more of a biting problem than unchained dogs.
Leitner can see the toll that tethering has taken on her canine neighbor. “She dashes back and forth frantically,” she says. “Her face looks very tense.”
The U.S. government has declared it “inhumane” to tether dogs continually. It has banned the tethering of canines at circuses, research facilities, and airlines, for example. Now Leitner and others are asking the Ashland City Council to pass an ordinance to help dogs who are chained for much of their lives at home.
This ordinance could save Ashland dogs many hundreds of thousands of hours of misery, just over the next decade. “Dogs have all the social needs that wolves--and in fact, humans--have,” says psychologist Dr. Theo Capaldo, past president of Psychologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. “One way that wolves severely punish a pack member is to ignore the animal. It is highly likely that many dogs experience their prolonged chaining and separation from the rest of the ”family/pack“ as rejection.” Dogs treated like this are probably depressed, Capaldo states. “Some become aggressive, but more typically the dogs will become lethargic and listless.”
Some canines even suck or chew on themselves, sometimes causing serious injury. Capaldo says, “Research on polar bears in zoos, for example, shows that when we deprive animals of their instinctive behaviors, we create neuroses or even psychotic-like conditions. For dogs, prolonged chaining is emotional abuse.”
Many dogs who are chained for long periods get into physical danger too. Often they get uncomfortably wrapped up in their chains, according to John Mays, executive director of the National Animal Control Association. Some of these canines end up with broken limbs, or even strangle to death.
Chained dogs are also easier targets for abusers and dog thieves. “It's common for kids to tease chained dogs by hosing them down, or throwing things like rocks, sticks or baseballs at them,” Mays says. These helpless dogs often get injured. “Sometimes even adults abuse chained dogs,” Mays adds, “especially if they have a personal vendetta against a neighbor.”
Sticks and stones, broken bones...then comes the rain. If dogs are constantly tied in the same spot, they wear away the grass. “You get a downpour of rain, and that dirt turns into mud real quick,” Mays says. “A wet, muddy dog is going to be very uncomfortable.”
He knows of chained dogs who froze to death because they didn't have enough shelter. And when the summer sun blazes down, many canines have to choose whether to swelter in the sunlight or crouch in an overheated doghouse. “Many of these dogs die of heat exhaustion,” Mays says.
Elderly, sick and weak dogs can have an especially tough time. So can young dogs: Sometimes as they grow, the chains become embedded in their necks, damaging the muscle and causing infections.
Animal Control To The Rescue?
But if you've ever complained to Jackson County Animal Control that a dog is chained up much of the time, you know how hopeless the situation is. The county allows animals to live permanently on a short tether--only long enough for them to stand up, sit down, turn around, and move away from their poop.
Randy Giron, a Jackson County Animal Control officer, guestimates that about 35 percent of Ashland dogs are tied up for at least part of the day. Many of these dogs may live on chains most or all of the time. “Chaining dogs around-the-clock is a lot more common than people think,” Mays says. Many, if not the vast majority, of Ashland's chained canines live behind fences, hidden from the public eye.
But Ashland may soon rescue its canine “citizens” from the misery of living on a chain. The city may follow the lead of the 80 or so communities that have passed ordinances to stop tethering that's inhumane. (These ordinances don't deal with tethering dogs in front of shops and the like. They only cover tethering at the animals' homes.)
Like popcorn kernels going off in a pan, one city after another is jumping on the humane bandwagon--from Los Angeles to Washington DC, from Denver to Little Rock. This trend to treat animals more kindly will probably embrace Ashland sooner or later.
Karen Leitner wants it to be sooner. She's one of the 35 or so people who have phoned or written Ashland legislators over the past two months, asking for an ordinance. “All beings, including dogs, need to feel free, and loved,” Leitner says. “People don't need to keep dogs tethered. They just need to teach them how to live harmoniously inside the house as family members.”
Here are some other Ashlanders who have written to Councilor Cate Hartzel or to the council and mayor, asking for an ordinance: the Jackson Fuel Committee; Annie Hoy (who works at the Ashland Food Co-op); Pamela Joy, representing Uncle Food's Diner; Reverend Michael Powell of the First United Methodist Church; Reverend Ruth Kirby of the Science of Mind Church; and Reverend Norma Burton of the Unity Church.
Four animal welfare organizations have also written the council asking for an ordinance: the Oregon Humane Society, the Southern Oregon Animal Rights Society, the Humane Society of the United States, and Dogs Deserve Better. Sally Mackler, board president of Spay and Neuter Your Pet (SNYP) wrote for an ordinance, too.
How is the Ashland City Council responding?
“I'd like to see an ordinance happen,” says Councilor Jack Hardesty. “Dogs shouldn't be tethered indefinitely.” He'd like Ashland to restrict tethering at home to no more than two hours out of 24, and only on a chain that can't get tangled up. (This reporter tried to get Councilors Russ Silbiger's and Alex Amarotico's responses as well. They did not return the calls.)
How likely is it that council will vote on an ordinance regulating tethering animals at home? Councilor David Chapman says he doesn't know. “If I had a dog,” he says, “I wouldn't chain him up. I'd want him to be able to run. To my view, it's not humane to tie up a dog permanently on a short chain.”
Ashland: A Leader In Kindness To Animals?
Ashland has a reputation for being progressive and far-seeing. Will it be one of the first cities to join the trend of treating chained animals more humanely?
“I empathize with dogs who spend their entire lives on short chains,” says Mayor John Morrison. “But I'm not sure that constitutes cruelty. I'd have to find that out from a dog expert--for example, a veterinarian or someone who works at a society for the prevention of cruelty to animals.”
Mayor Morrison isn't the only legislator to hold back from declaring that it's cruelty to continually chain an animal. “The law is slow in recognizing that chaining dogs constitutes emotional cruelty to the dog,” said Linda Cawley, a lawyer who has specialized in dog cases and who wrote The Legal Beagle. “Laws usually lag way behind public opinion.”
Ashland already has an ordinance about tethering dogs on public property. Couldn't it add something about tying dogs up at their homes?
Councilor Kate Jackson doesn't feel the city has the time or staff to create and enforce a new tethering ordinance now. “We have to respect the voters' position that they don't want to fund government beyond a certain tax base,” she says. She adds that not enough people have complained to the police about barking from chained dogs to warrant an ordinance.
“All animals need to be treated humanely,” Jackson continues. “But the city already has more than enough key community issues to deal with at this time. For example, how do we deal with beggars and insulting behavior on the plaza?”
Karen Leitner feels that the city should make it a priority to relieve the suffering of chained dogs. She says, “The neighborhood dog that I see out my window, and all Ashland dogs, give people unconditional love. These dogs deserve to be loved and respected in return--not imprisoned at the end of a rope for most of their lives.”
Barbara Rosen is leading the campaign for a tethering ordinance in Ashland. For more information: ambujar@hotmail.com.
