Bill Would Keep Dogs off Unattended Leashes
Montgomery County, Maryland
January 16, 2002 -- To prevent the inhumane chaining of dogs for long periods, Montgomery County is considering a total ban of the practice.
County Councilman Blair G. Ewing is proposing a change in the county’s animal control law to say that a dog cannot be left tied by rope, chain, tether or similar restraint to a fixed post unless its owner is present.
“There are too many instances when dogs are left chained in extreme cold or heat, or they get tied up and tangled in the chain,” said Ewing (D-At Large) of Silver Spring, who introduced the bill Nov. 20. “Leaving dogs for a long period of time is leaving them open to potential problems.”
Ewing, who had a basset hound named Slippery Hill George who died of old age, said he would be open to changing his bill to allow a dog to be chained for an hour or less, a reasonable time to allow its owner to run an errand. The bill, as it is worded, does not allow that.
A public hearing on the proposal was set for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday night in Rockville, after The Gazette’s deadline.
The Montgomery County Humane Society, the Animal Protection Alliance and several dog owners are backing the proposal.
“It is cruel and heartbreaking to see animals come in with collars embedded in their neck, unsocialized because of being at the end of a chain,” said Sharon Kessler, director of the Montgomery County Humane Society, a nonprofit that runs the county’s animal shelter in Rockville. “We feel it is a cruelty that can be eliminated by this legislation.”
The bill specifies that chain offenders face a Class A civil violation, an offense that carries a maximum fine of $500.
The society’s president, Margaret Zanville, said chained dogs live a miserable existence -- taunted by children, turning aggressive because they are confined, their muscles atrophying because of lack of exercise.
Zanville cited the case of a friend who adopted a Doberman that had frequently been left chained by its previous owner. “The dog didn’t know how to walk in a straight line. He walked side to side, the length of a chain.”
“If you are going to have a dog, why put them on a chain?” she said, saying dog owners should train their pets and leave them indoors or in a fenced yard.
For those who worry their dogs will jump the fence, Zanville suggests wiring the fence and attaching the wire to a battery box. “Once they get a little shock, they never go for the fence.”
Susan Rich, director of the Animal Protection Alliance, a volunteer watchdog group on animal control, said she once adopted a tan hound dog named Cory who often tried to jump her backyard fence. “Did I stick her on a chain? No,” she said, noting that she bought fence extensions that added two to three feet.
“Dogs who live outside on a chain are basically unwanted animals,” Rich said. “I hesitate to call them pets.”
Elizabeth Marsden, who takes care of two Australian cattle dogs in her one-bedroom Silver Spring apartment, says she is careful to exercise her pets before leaving them indoors, free to roam and chew on bones.
“To leave them at the end of a chain is solitary confinement,” Marsden said. “People who do that shouldn’t have a dog, they should have a stuffed animal.”
Rockville veterinarian Michael Bassett said dogs that tug on their chain could damage their windpipe. He recalled tending to a neglected dog whose skin had grown over its collar, embedding it; the dog developed tetanus and took a week to recover.
“It is just a brutal existence,” Basset said, saying he is in favor of the bill.
Captain Wayne Fryer, director of the county Animal Services Division that falls under county police, said police had not yet taken a position on the bill. His officers will be responsible for enforcing the law.
“Conceptually, I don’t think we would disagree with keeping dogs off chains,” Fryer said.
Fryer said one of the most egregious cases of chaining and neglect he saw was of a dog left chained in the backyard of a Wheaton house in June 2000. An animal control officer found the mutt’s fur matted, her skin raw and pink and covered with maggots. “It was a pretty disgusting sight,” he said. Fryer said he had the dog taken to a vet, but it was too late. The dog died.
Last year, his officers responded to approximately 9,600 calls. Of those, an estimated 150 calls were violations linked to chaining, he said.
Fryer said he expects the calls to double if the bill becomes law, extra work that may necessitate two additional officers.
