Operation Fido's Freedom: Dogs Deserve Better: No Chains

Day 39, Sitting for Tioga County dogs, of which I have reports of a
place with 50 chained dogs and no one will do anything about it.

Day 39, September 23, 2010.
Operation Fido's Freedom.
What is Crazy, Anyway?

Before I officially formed Dogs Deserve Better in 2002, I decided to take a stand for chained dogs. I created a sign, a "No Chains" kind of thing with a picture of a dog in it, and I hung it in the window of my van. I felt scared about doing it, and as far as I knew at the time I was the only one taking such a stand (there were others, I just didn't know it.)

My brother looked at the sign and said, "I agree with you, but I would never put that on my window."

I told my neighbor I was going to start an organization against chaining, and she said, "I agree with you, but you'll never get anywhere with that; no one will ever listen to you." (Did she know the legislators or something?)

I started the organization anyway, and guess what I've heard a thousand times in the past eight years, mostly from those who chain their dogs when they leave ranting and screaming messages on my machine? "You're crazy."

They think if they just explain to me how Gosh Darn HAPPY their dog is on the chain, I'll finally understand and stop all this nonsense about dogs wanting to be with people.

Now THAT's crazy!

People who are passionate about social change giving members of society rights that go against the ingrained hierarchy are often labeled as crazy.

Alice Paul, credited with finally winning women the right to vote, was thrown in jail with her followers for demonstrating in front of the white house everyday and embarrassing the president. They then attempted to her her committed as "crazy;" which would have been a very convenient end to their problem. Luckily they didn't succeed.

Of course I've been called crazy repeatedly for standing in front of the PA Capitol Building chained to a doghouse, mostly by those who are arguably unhappy in their own lives and are unable to see the determination it takes to sacrifice so much for those in need.

Joe, in one of those rare moments when I'm not kissing him

The unhappy guy near me who sees only things like "I kiss my boyfriend and get off the chain for potty breaks" is a prime example of this mentality. I spend ten hours a day here for chained dogs, and that's what he takes away from it? I feel sorry for him. He is one miserable bastard.

And, guess what? I STILL kiss my boyfriend and get off my chain for potty breaks (for which you should be grateful.) Natty Natty Boo Boo.

There's one girl that I may need to put in my crazy compartment after today. She's a cute girl, thin, has dreads that she wears up in a black rasta hat, and she always dresses nice. She doesn't look crazy. She is usually seen walking two dogs on the other side of the street, but not seeming to notice what I'm doing or caring one way or the other about it.

One day early on she came over and sat down, asking me what I was doing. I explained, then I told her I liked her dogs. Her response? "They're not my dogs."

No "I'm a dog walker" or "They're my boyfriend's." Nothing.

I was like, "Oh, whatever."

She sat saying little else for awhile, didn't seem particularly supportive of our cause, and then got up and walked off.

She's continued to walk the same two "not her" dogs past me, and I've tried waving or smiling at her numerous times. She usually just looks the other way.

One day she was riding a bike past, and she put her hand up to shield her eyes so she didn't see me. Odd.

That's when I really started to wonder what the deal is with this girl.

This morning, though, she took the cake when she walked the two "not her" dogs on my side of the street, and half smiled at me as she walked by.

I thought "hmm, maybe she does like what I'm doing after all," but then she started crossing the street, stopped in the middle, pulled her headphones out of her ears, and yelled "There will be less vet bills, do you really think they'll support that?"

WTF?

What is she talking about?

Joe and I just looked at each other, puzzled.

There will be less vet bills if we pass a law limiting chaining? Why? For one thing, chained dogs are rarely vetted in any way, rarely have licenses, and rarely have even a rabies shot. Their caretakers are giving very few dollars to any vet.

However, if they give up the dog to rescue it results in MORE vet bills, not less, as we immediately get them vetted, spayed, neutered, and licensed.

Then, their adoptive home and family—head and shoulders above the previous one—will take the dog to the vet faithfully all the years of the dog's life until he/she passes.

Therefore, rescuing a chained dog increases vet revenue. DDB alone spent over $65,000 vetting formerly chained and penned dogs in our last fiscal year. The amount spent at vets if they were still on the chain? Negligible.

I'm still willing to give her the benefit of the doubt though, perhaps she could be autistic or have asperger's or something, and just think differently than I do? It's either that, or she may just be going into my crazy bin.

Another guy, a tall, possibly homeless man with a speech impediment came up to me carrying a magazine and pages of writing. I think he was trying to explain to me how the two articles in the magazine were related, and he had gone to the library and taken all these notes, but none of it made sense to me. I felt bad for him, because he obviously had intelligence within him, but for whatever reason his logic was not in a way understandable by the common woman. I'm assuming it made sense to him.

Then a woman shook her head at my sign and mumbled "Why don't you attack the real problem." Normally when someone's mumbling and walking away, I just ignore them because they obviously don't want to engage about it. But I'd had enough for one day, so I loudly said "What is the real problem?"

She said "People who chain their dogs."

Oh. Duh! Why didn't I think of that?

I said "How do you stop them from chaining their dogs without a law that tells them they can't chain their dogs?"

I think we might really want to take a good look at the word 'crazy' before we go labeling the woman chained to the doghouse. Just sayin'.

Miscellaneous stuff from the day:

1. I started feeling sick in the afternoon, but I didn't know if it was from the heat or I picked up a virus that's been going around, and I'm not keen on puking while chained.

2. A bug flew onto my shirt, Deb says they're the stinkbugs. I thought I brushed it off of me, but turned out it went down into my shirt! I looked down and saw it crawling out from inside, and I squealed and flicked it off. I was totally freaked out.

3. I got off my chain today for the only thing besides a bathroom break that would make me do so: To help an animal. There was a kitten trapped in the engine of a car near the juice shop yesterday, and Steve, the juice guy, probably saved it's life because he put a note on the woman's car to check her engine before leaving. The kitten is feral, and it scratched her and ran away when she tried to get it out.

Then one of the guys who works at the Capitol came down and asked me if I help animals other than dogs. He told me there was a kitten crying up at the one window of the Capitol. So I went up, and sure enough it was the same kitten. I tried to get it, but it was so scared and ran away from me, climbing into the engine of an SUV. Not again! So the guy came out and we were able to finally get the kitten out of the engine, but it ran off and God knows what will happen to the poor thing. Made me really sad that I couldn't help him/her. I don't know if it's used to living on it's own and capable of caring for itself, I hope it is.

4. Remember I'm leaving for Montana for the Animal Control conference tomorrow. I'm giving a four hour seminar there on Monday, and I had already committed to this before deciding to come to Harrisburg. I won't back out on them, and I figured my spot would be empty while I was gone, but I'm so happy to report that we've found people to cover the spots! Thanks to those of you who've stepped up to help and to Mike Romberger for coordinating. Please take pics and write a guest blog which I'd be thrilled to post of your thoughts from your time on a chain standing for chained dogs. Mike still needs someone to fill in on Tuesday from 2-4 p.m. Are you willing? If so, please e-mail him at mike@whosdoggie.com.

Find your Senator and House Rep at: http://www.legis.state.pa.us/
Please contact them TODAY and tell them “I’m here for their law.”
Remember, they work FOR us. Insist that they support SB1435.

I will be actively blogging, facebooking, and tweeting daily from my chain.
To follow me, fan me, or read the nightly blog, check out the links below:

Follow the campaign, Operation Fidos Freedom on:

Can you donate for this campaign which aims to save tens of thousands of dogs from life at the end of the chain? To donate by phone, call 814.941.7447.

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