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Get
your
Chain Off 2007 Attire!
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Susan
Hartland, Leslie Kenter, Tracy Huddleson
Protesters chain themselves, let their dogs run free By
JESSIE DIMARIANO REDMOND -- The sun was shining and the Off Leash Dog area nestled in Marymoor Park was bustling with dog owners and their furry companions Saturday. But while the dogs basked in the sun and enjoyed games of fetch, seven dog lovers sat chained to dog houses and poles. "We do it for the animals because they can't speak for themselves and we want people to know that it is actually a form of cruelty," said Susan Hartland, who, despite being tied by a rope to a nearby lawn stake, handed out informational flyers to passing dog owners. Hartland was there as a Washington representative for Dogs Deserve Better, the Pennsylvania-based non-profit that organizes a national, annual event dubbed, "Unchain the 50." It was the fifth year for the protest, meant to raise awareness of what the group believes are the detrimental effects of chaining dogs.
The group aims to have at least one person in each state live chained to a doghouse for eight to 24 hours as a way of informing people of the damage animal tethering can cause a dog. In Washington, instead of just one person, they had seven. Tammy Grimes, founder of Dogs Deserve Better, will live chained in Atlanta for 29 hours this weekend, and with more than 100 people participating in 36 different states, the campaign is gaining national recognition for both its educational efforts, as well as its legislative ambitions. "It really is an educational event and we did it here so people who already love dogs will be appalled at the issue and we can tell them what they can do about it," said Seattle resident Sandy Clinton, another Dogs Deserve Better representative, who attended sans dog collar or chain.
The group hopes their protests will prompt laws limiting tethering dogs. Just last year, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law a bill that outlawed tethering a dog for more than three hours. Dogs Deserve Better has also teamed up with Pasado's Safe Haven, which services abandoned, abused and neglected animals, to introduce a Washington state bill in the next legislative session that would place similar restrictions on tethering dogs. Citing statistics from Centers for Disease Control, the group contends a chained dog is 2.8 times more likely to bite than an unchained dog. Also, they say, chained dogs typically lack adequate veterinary care, food, water or shelter, and can develop infections and severe wounds when their collars become embedded in their necks from constantly being tethered.
Wearing her dog's old collar, Leslie Kenter chained herself to the plastic igloo type doghouse that belonged to her previous dog, Gus. Kenter believes a state limit on tethering would have saved Gus, a German shepherd mix she rescued but later had to euthanize because of his untreatable aggressive behavior. "I understood that he was unadoptable and decided to keep him," Kenter said in a flyer about her dog. "He longed for love and companionship and he received neither. As hard as he tried, Gus could not let go of being protective -- this is what he had learned during the years he was chained."
Marion Hewko, another participant, spent nine hours chained to a pole in Chilliwack, B.C. on a rainy Friday and traveled to Redmond on Saturday to do the same, continuing her protest against the tethering of dogs. "I was in the rain for what, two hours," she said, laying on a tarp next to her friend's dogs, Sady and Duffy, sporting hand-sewn dog shirts with the Canadian maple leaf. "That's nothing when the dogs are left in it 24/7." Local participants plan to remain chained over night at the Animal Healing Center in Redmond and keep up the protest throughout the weekend.
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