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Get
your
Chain Off 2007 Attire!
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Lisa
Fischer Hear Lisa's Radio Interview, she was great! Lisa's Write-up, Articles Follow The day dawns bright and clear. I am hopeful that it remains this way! My boyfriend, Bob, & I leave the house at 6:45 to head over to the event site; we go early to set up the doghouse & items for yard sale. Mom & dad were there, too. I was ready to go by 7:50, so went ahead & put the collar & chain on. Within 15 minutes I was already pulling at the collar & not comfortable with my 15 foot restriction. The first 2 hours were fairly quiet, not too many people stopping by for the sale. By 10:00, things changed. We had constant visitors (family, friends & strangers) for the rest of the day. Around 11:00, DDB reps. Chris Ameduri & her Bob came in to set up an info table. They brought along their 3 wonderful rescue doggies. I had thought there would be a lot of “down-time” and had planned on reading or working on craft projects, but this was not to be. Aside from the ‘Birthday gift an hour’ from my mom, I was kept busy talking with people all day. A lot of folks had seen the report on CBS 21 or read the articles in either The Patriot or The Sentinel newspapers. Some simply thought we were having a yard sale, no clue about the girl in the doghouse until they turned around & saw me. In either case, nearly everyone that came up the driveway gave a donation that ranged anywhere from $1.00 to $50.00. Some told stories about abuses they had either heard about or witnessed. A number of passers-by honked their horns & waved. So many simply thanked me for bringing attention to this issue & wished me well. Along the way, WHTM 27 & Fox 43 News came out to do a short taped piece. The Gettysburg Reps thought I did a good job, so that was nice to hear. Before I knew it, 4:00 rolled around & it was time to unhook the collar & unchain myself. I had not encountered one negative moment all day. We cleaned up the front yard & headed home by 4:30. Since it was my birthday today, my Bob had “cooked” up a real treat for me. A gourmet meal fit for a Queen, or good dog, at the very least… The final total in donations topped $1200 & I couldn’t have been more surprised and pleased. It goes to show there are many people that believe changes need to be made in how animals are kept. I did one final interview on Monday with a local radio station, WHYL 960 AM. This was the first time in several years that they were doing local, feel-good stories, so I felt honored that they chose this one to cover. PJ even offered to do a Live broadcast next year when I do the full 24 hour chaining. Yep, we’re already planning next years’ event. Stay tuned… Spending
a day in the dog house By
Jessica Bruni, Sentinel Reporter, June 29, 2007 Some girls ask for diamonds on their birthday. Others may demand shoes or purses or other pieces of jewelry. Lisa Fischer asked for a dog house. “I just wanted to do something a little different on my birthday,” she says with a laugh. On Sunday, Fischer, a Mt. Holly resident, will celebrate her 37 years by chaining herself to the people-sized dog house constructed by her boyfriend, Bob, in support of Dogs Deserve Better, a nonprofit organization dedicated to freeing the chained dog. The event helps kick off the organization's fifth annual “Chain Off,” where the goal is to get at least one person from each state to agree to be chained to a doghouse for up to 24 hours as part of the “Unchain the 50” campaign. Fischer was the first person from Pennsylvania to sign up for the event. “I just liked what they were doing,” she says. Educational mission On Sunday, Fischer will set up the dog house in front of a friend's home on busy Newville Road heading out of Carlisle. Fischer says she purposely chose that location because the high-volume traffic should draw attention to her cause. If seeing a grown woman sporting a collar and an eight-foot chain that's attached to a dog house isn't enough to attract scrutiny, Fischer hopes the yard sale, which is planned at the property for the same time, will. There also will be a table set up with information about the Dogs Deserve Better organization. “It might be a way to get some people to come up the driveway,” she says. A life-long animal lover who has two dogs of her own, Fischer says she came across the Dogs Deserve Better Web site about a year ago. At the time, Fischer says, she was researching the Internet after noticing that a neighbor of her parents kept his hunting dogs in rabbit hutches in his back yard. “It disturbed me so much,” she says. “I typed in hunting dogs and the Web site (for Dogs Deserve Better) came up.” Fischer immediately found herself agreeing with the organization's goals, which includes helping people finds way to bring dogs - chained or in cages - indoors through training, funding for fences and more. “As soon as I read about it, I responded,” she said. Chaining ‘horror' Fischer kept in touch, but once she came across the details for the Chain-off event, she knew she wanted to participate, if only to get an inkling of what dogs must feel like when chained outdoors 24/7. “I thought, ‘Will I be bored?” she says. “Are people going to want to pat me on the head? What is the thought process that they're going through?” For the record, Fischer keeps her dogs “naked,” meaning Penny and Sierra don't even wear collars unless they're going for a walk or to the vet. They'll never have to know that kind of horror,” she says of chaining her dogs. Although known as a dog advocate, Fischer admits her friends and family found her choice of a birthday celebration a little strange at first. “The first response I got from everyone was an ‘Ohhhh,'” Fischer says. Her boyfriend felt similar, but once he understood Fischer was serious, he offered to build her the dog house. “He knows that I'm dog-crazy anyway,” she explains. “He said, ‘If that's how you want to spend your birthday, then OK'.” After people got over the initial shock, Fischer, who works as a receptionist at the Pennsylvanian Coalition Against Domestic Violence, says she received nothing but support. Indeed, during her eight- hour stint chained to the dog house, Fischer says, friends, family members and co-workers have offered to stop by to show their support. Even so, Fischer says, she expects some people may not be so supportive her stance. In that case, she looks forward to the chance to get people to change their views. The chain, she thinks, will make the impact. “I really want to show people what it would be like to be out there,” she says.
Woman to chain herself to doghouse Posted by Andrea Ciccocioppo/The Patriot-News June 28, 2007 18:58PM Lisa Fischer went to a discount pet store and selected a blue collar. She also bought a 15-foot chain and a metal stake that she couldn't wait to anchor near the brand-new 4-by-3-foot doghouse that her boyfriend built. Fischer doesn't have a new dog. She got the collar for herself. She plans to chain herself to the doghouse for eight hours on Sunday. Fischer, of South Middleton Twp., wants to raise awareness of what she calls suffering by dogs kept chained or penned. Her eight-hour stint on a friend's front lawn is to benefit Dogs Deserve Better, a nonprofit organization that wants people to keep their pets in their homes. Across the county, at least 74 people in 29 states will chain themselves to doghouses as part of the Dogs Deserve Better weeklong "Unchain the 50." Fischer said she can't stand to see dogs chained outside. Her two "girls," Sierra and Penny, collie/Labrador mixes, lounge around the house. She said she never thought of herself as an activist, but she was inspired to take action after seeing a neighbor's hunting dogs left unattended in a rabbit cage. "We are opposed to dogs being chained up, especially for extended periods," said Adam Goldfarb, spokesman for the Humane Society of the U.S. "We feel dogs are companion animals and should be part of the family." Goldfarb said studies have shown that dogs who are tethered have a three times greater risk of attacking people than dogs that aren't.
Woman
protests chaining of dogs By
Heather Stauffer, Sentinel Reporter, July 2, 2007 Although the chain on her neck grew heavy, Lisa Fischer says spending her birthday chained to a doghouse was “fantastic.” “I can't say that I had any expectations for the day,” says the Mt. Holly Springs resident, who turned 37 on Sunday and celebrated by taking part in the annual Chain Off event sponsored by Dogs Deserve Better. For eight hours, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Fischer sat at a giant doghouse her boyfriend built for her, wearing a collar and chain. “I started about 10 minutes early, and within 15 minutes I could feel myself already pulling,” she says. “Definitely I was very aware of the collar and the chain all day.” But, she says, the weather was perfect, and she was buoyed by the support of friends, family and strangers who stopped by to chat with her.“I kept expecting someone to come and look me in the eye and said, ‘What are you doing,'” she says. Instead, she says, the people who didn't know “simply started asking questions.” “Everyone
was just completely supportive,” she says. “I heard
so many stories today from people, from folks that have seen dogs
that have been neglected and abused and just didn't know what
to.” Steady traffic She was glad to be able to give them literature - and to be able to donate the more than $1,100 to help further the mission of Dogs Deserve Better. Fischer says she came across the nonprofit organization's Web site about a year ago. At the time, Fischer says, she was researching after noticing that a neighbor of her parents kept his hunting dogs in rabbit hutches in his back yard. “It disturbed me so much,” she says. “I typed in ‘hunting dogs' and the Web site (for Dogs Deserve Better) came up.” Fischer immediately found herself agreeing with the organization's goals, which includes helping people finds way to bring dogs - chained or in cages - indoors through training, funding for fences and more. “As soon as I read about it, I responded,” she said. “I talked to people all day long,” she says, estimating that between 50 and 60 people stopped by the Newville Road property where she placed her dog house to take advantage of garage sale traffic. More time next year? Friends gave her little crafting projects to keep her busy, she says, but she never got a chance to do any of them. “I was fortunate, as opposed to dogs that have no activity all day,” she says. The lifelong animal lover's two dogs, Penny and Sierra, don't even wear collars unless they're going for a walk or to the vet. “They'll never have to know that kind of horror,” she says of chaining her dogs. Now that the collar is off, Fischer says, she's already planning next year's event - and since eight hours went so well, she's thinking of doing 24 next year. “It was a unique way to spend the day,” she says. More information about the organization is available at www.dogsdeservebetter.com.
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