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Off 2009 Sanford, Florida My eight hours being chained is nothing in comparison to what chained dogs all over the country experience. Dogs are broken down to nothing more than lawn ornaments throughout the country. The Chain Off is a great way to raise awareness and shed light on this national tragedy happening to mans best friend. Here in Seminole County my wife and I have been working since 07 with local government to pass chaining limitations. We are happy that Seminole County will one day soon be a safer and more humane place for dogs. The chain off in Seminole county got great media coverage . We handed out flyers to people entering the dog park and talked to passerbys. Bryan Wilson
Man Chains Self To Doghouse For Hours In Protest
13 Central Florida News Coverage of Chain-Off 2009 in Sanford, Florida
SANFORD -- A Seminole County man chained himself to a doghouse as part of a nationwide protest Saturday. Bryan Wilson said he participated in the 2009 Chain Off to show dog owners how cruel it is to chain their dogs 24 hours a day. Wilson chained himself to a doghouse at the entrance to Sanford’s Paw Park from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, despite the heat -- and without the occasional shower. Wilson said eight hours of discomfort is nothing compared to the daily suffering of so many dogs who spend their entire lives at the end of a chain. “It’s so hot here. It makes dogs more aggressive. Second, it’s dangerous for the dogs, and the third thing is it’s cruel,” Wilson said. Saturday marked the seventh year of the Chain-Off. Wilson said he hopes Seminole County will pass an ordinance making it illegal to chain a dog for 24 hours a day.
It will be the 7th annual "Chain Off" organized by the Pennsylvania nonprofit Dogs Deserve Better to ban or limit the practice. According to the organization, an estimated 6 million dogs in the U.S. live most or all of their lives in chains, many of them becoming impregnated and giving birth while chained, giving rise to yet more unwanted animals. Chained dogs often become neurotic and aggressive, thereby posing a danger to children and adults. Wilson, who did the same protest last year, and his wife have been lobbying Seminole County since 2007 to pass a law limiting how long people can chain their dogs. Animal Services Manager Morgan Woodward said Tuesday the department is proposing a ban on chaining between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., during severe weather and for animals younger than 6 months old. The Board of County Commissioners has the final approval. For more information, visit www.dogsdeservebetter.org or www.unchainourworld.org. Bryan Wilson prepares to demonstrate his Fourth of July protest at Sanford's Paw Park, on Thursday, July 3, 2008. (Dennis Wall/Orlando Sentinel)
posted by Kate Santich on Jul 2, 2009 8:38:20 PM While the rest of us are holding cook-outs or going to the beach or just having a day off to appreciate freedom, a Winter Springs man will spend most of his Fourth of July “holiday” on a chain, tethered to a dog house. Bryan Wilson, 40, is one of hundreds of animal advocates throughout the nation expected to participate in the annual “Chain Off” – a weeklong event created by the nonprofit organization Dogs Deserve Better to raise awareness of the inhumanity of keeping dogs chained up. Dogs, after all, are social animals. Isolation makes them fearful, neurotic, territorial – and sometimes aggressive. A few years ago, while writing about an animal cruelty investigator, I saw a dog that had nearly been decapitated from being left on a chain for so long. Presumably, he was first chained as a puppy, but inevitably he grew. His neck grew. The collar did not grow. It began to strangle him. Fortunately, that dog was saved and adopted by a wonderful family. (That's "Mac" in the photo below, with rescuer Ernie White.) But across the country an estimated 6 million dogs still live most or all of their lives in chains, many of them becoming impregnated and giving birth while chained, giving rise to yet more unwanted animals. Many of them die – of strangulation, of heat exposure, from lack of food or water, or even from euthanasia, usually after they have attacked some innocent child who wanders into the only “territory” the dog has ever known. “Most of us can barely begin to imagine the agony and loneliness of such a life for a social, intelligent animal like a dog,” says Wilson, who will spend from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday chained up at the entrance to the Paw Park in Sanford. He’ll be there rain or shine. “My 8 hours of discomfort is nothing compared to the daily suffering of so many dogs who spend their entire lives at the end of a chain, living in a small patch of mud, their chains wrapped around a tree, baking in the summer sun or freezing in the cold, desperate for affection or even just a walk.” PX00184_9[1] Chain Off is now in its seventh year. Unfortunately, it’s still necessary. Despite the increasing number of reasonable people who understand that dogs are intelligent animals requiring exercise, grooming, vet care, stimulation, and compassion – all of which most perpetually chained dogs never receive – 24/7 chaining is still prevalent and accepted in many places in the United States, including in Seminole County, where existing animal welfare laws place no limits on chaining dogs. Happily, a number of states, cities and counties have started passing laws addressing how long people can chain their dogs. California and Texas recently passed statewide laws that put specific time limits on chaining, and a number of other states, including Pennsylvania and South Carolina, are considering similar legislation. Several hundred cities and counties nationwide also have so-called anti-tethering laws, some banning the practice entirely. “Dogs should be part of the family,” Wilson says, “not lawn ornaments.” For more information: go to dogsdeservebetter.org or unchainourworld.org.
By Daphne Sashin Orlando Sentinel Staff Writer Animal advocates Bryan Wilson of Winter Springs and Christopher Murphy with Superior Dog Rescue in Orlando's College Park announced they will chain themselves to a dog house at Sanford's Paw Park from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday to call attention to suffering by dogs that are chained for long periods of time.
By Abraham Aboraya | July 08, 2009
Ball and Chain: Bryan Wilson, of Winter Springs, SEMINOLE COUNTY - See Spot. See Spot run. Don't see Spot chained. That was the message Winter Springs animal activist Bryan Wilson wore on his T-shirt this Fourth of July during the second-annual Chain Off, a protest against tethering dogs outside for extended periods of time. Wilson has spent the last two years lobbying Seminole County to prohibit extensive chaining of animals outside, a practice Wilson calls inhumane. And the goal may be achieved soon. Seminole County is revamping all of their ordinances that deal with Animal Services, and a restriction on tethering is included in the new laws. "It's been a two-year process now," Wilson said Saturday, chained to a tree at Sanford's Dog Park. "... We're very pleased with the fact that this is going forward and there will be some relief for dogs here in Seminole County." Morgan Woodward, the manager of Seminole County's Animal Services Department, said the new ordinances will go through a legal check before they get presented to a citizen advisory board. From there, the Seminole County Commission will vote on the new laws. Woodward said he doesn't know when the changes could come through. "No idea," Woodward said. "We're still working on some details, and with all the cutbacks going on with the county, it's been pushed back. Hopefully it won't be much longer, because I am looking forward to getting it off my plate." It's currently illegal to tether a dog in Miami and Miami-Dade County, and extended tethering is restricted in nearby Orange County. Seminole's ordinance will be based on Orange County's, which restricts the time during the heat of the day. But Seminole's will go a little further in the protections. It will also be illegal to tether a dog during bad weather, and chaining dogs younger than 6 months old will be prohibited outright. "I view it as a welfare issue," Woodward said. "A dog that's chained up 24 hours a day, seven days a week, probably doesn't get the social interaction that I would give my dogs." Five states - Texas, California, Connecticut, Virginia and West Virginia - have restrictions at the state level on tethering an animal outside. Dogs Deserve Better, the organization sponsoring the Chain Off, usually tackles tethering laws locally. "Ideally, a statewide ban (in Florida) would be the preferred solution, but getting anything in the state of Florida is very difficult," Wilson said. "The county by county bans are the way we've been doing things." Tammy Grimes, the founder of Dogs Deserve Better, the national organization that sponsors the Chain Offs, said they aren't lobbying on the national level for a ban on tethering. "It's pretty much impossible to lobby on the national level for this," Grimes said. "Unfortunately, it's not feasible on a national level, so it has to be on a state-by-state level or community-by-community level." Wilson said that extended tethering poses problems. Animals are more likely to bite when they've been tethered for extended periods of time, an assertion that Seminole County's Woodward agreed with. Wilson also said it's inhumane to keep an animal outside in the Florida heat, and that the dogs can hurt themselves on the chains. "Hopefully, once people start bringing them off the chains, they'll realize how social dogs are, how willing they are to be a part of the family, not just a lawn ornament," Wilson said.
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On July 4, Bryan Wilson of Winter Springs and Christopher Murphy with Superior Dog Rescue in College Park will chain themselves to a dog house at the entrance to Sanford's Paw Park from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., rain or shine, to call attention to the suffering by dogs that are chained for long periods of time. 
