Watch Day Nine Video Tour, Tennessee

 

Diary of Dawn: Day 9, Tennessee —
Free as a Bird?

The word of the day is "brrr" as in "brrr it's could in these mountains!" I don 't think brrr is an actual word so I'll switch to the other word of the day "birds". We drove down back highways after we left Kristin's in North Carolina and found ourselves in Tennessee. Tammy and I were driving along when we both blurted, "What the heck was that?" as we passed some monstrosity we assume someone calls a yard. We thought it was a yard full of chained dogs. We did a u-turn in a parking lot and went back. What we found were roosters in separate pens and cages and roosters with their little rooster legs chained to big blue plastic barrels. We both believed that we ran across a cock fighting operation, as we could find no other reason for such atrocities committed against rooster after rooster.

"We (Tennessee) have become the center of the universe for cockfighting," Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro. ( http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/apr/09/cockfighting-still-prevalent-fbi-agent-says/ ) We took down the address and are sending it to HSUS and Peta. As we were leaving some big ol' high stepping rooster of a woman started towards us and we hightailed it out of there.

We met next at Elizabeth's where we were acquainted with her 4 happy little dogs, one of which was a puppy mill rescue who wouldn't even come near us. Elizabeth's rescued birds greeted us with "hellos" and "I love you's" and we snuggled with one of her rescued cats. Elizabeth's birds love to sit in her lap and whisper in her ear from their perch on her shoulder. I wanted one to perch on my shoulder, but Elizabeth told me the bird may bite, just what I didn't need, to be bitten by another animal! I still had one good ear left, and I mean to keep it that way.

After Elizabeth served us the most delicious sandwich we embarked on an excursion and talked to caretakers about their chained dogs. Elizabeth took us to met Sadie, her special friend that she visits regularly with permission from her guardian, with whom she has also struck up a friendship. She told us that Sadie sleeps with her legs straight up in the air, and she snorted when we petted her. This made Tammy very sad, because her dog Heidi, a rottie mix, does both of those things too, and there's poor Sadie outside alone much of the time. We sent Valentine's to many in Elizabeth's area and she told us about one caretaker who takes his dog inside now. However, for the most part she continues to remain frustrated by the lack of caring in her small corner of the world.

We met Homer a chained dog with some ribcage showing. We spoke to his caretaker, I always like to call young men with dogs the dog's "boy". I think every dog loves to have his own "boy" to love him back. We gave Homer's boy some food and a fencing application. We talked to him about bringing Homer inside with him. The caretaker admitted to not living at the residence any longer and plans to bring Homer to his new house and give him a bath. I can only hope that he is good on him promise and gives Homer what he really needs, "his boy's love". When we pulled away Homer was being fed.

We talked with a Shar Pei's caretaker. Aren't Shar Pei's expensive dogs? What is it all the breeders I've met on this journey tell me? "Our dogs are too expensive to mistreat." I sure hope some of them watch these videos and decide to start screening the homes they sell to. If you love a certain breed, you should care about how that breed is living. I love all dogs so they all break my heart, still most of us have our favorites who tug a little more at our heartstrings. This Shar Pei looked so angry, I can see how breeds get bad reputations because their caretakers throw them on a chain and leave them unsocialized then the next thing you know someone is talking breed specific legislation against those dogs, what a waste. The caretaker of the Shar Pei agreed to take a fencing application, but we could tell she was a little annoyed.

By the time we got to Shannon's home Tammy and I were burned out for the day. Working all day and night and seeing so many distressing situations is really exhausting. Poor Shannon, I'm sure she feels this every day as she walks outside with her own happy pups and the first thing she sees is a sad chained Shepherd mix staring longingly back at her. We took a stroll around her neighborhood and passed out some information. We took her car to a bad part and ran into what looked more like dog fighting operations. Shannon is sending us the addresses and information so we can call in the authorities to check on those residences.

We are only showing you a tidbit of what we see and never the worst footage. Please pass the videos on to your friends because it is important for all to realize that chaining is indeed a horrible practice and backyard dogs truly do suffer on the end of a chain all over the U.S. The 101 dogs we spied in Tennessee gives us an overall total of 656 chained and penned dogs so far on this trip. Given that we intended to see a mere 10 dogs a day, we're floored by the amount of chaining our country is still tolerating.

Thank you for your support! Wow! It's already day 10 tomorrow in Kentucky and who knows what craziness we will run into next!

Dawn Ashby, DDB Public Liaison Director

12 Days, 12 States, 120 Chained Dog

Day 1: April 6th, Missouri
Day 2: April 7th, Arkansas
Day 3: April 8th, Lousiana
Day 4: April 9th, Mississippi
Day 5: April 10, Alabama
Day 6: April 11, Georgia
Day 7: April 12, South Carolina
Day 8: April 13, North Carolina
Day 9: April 14, Tennessee
Day 10: April 15, Kentucky
Day 11: April 16, Virginia
Day 12: April 17, West Virginia

We are offering new collars and leashes for as many dogs as we can afford, plus giving out treats and dog food in addition to educational materials and discussions. If you can help fund the campaign and the supplies we'd like to deliver, it would be very much appreciated.

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