WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP FIGHT ANIMALS ABUSE:
- Report any act of animal abuse or neglect that you see or hear about to your local authorities. Try to document the case by keeping a record of the animal's treatment. It is very important that you be persistent.
- Look for dogs tied up in backyards that are not being provided with food, water, and/or shelter. Report animals at risk.
- Animals on farms without adequate food, water, or shelter, or in unsanitary conditions need to be reported. Horse ranches, breeding and training facilities with abused or neglected animals should be reported also.
- Support city and state legislation giving greater protection to animals and stiffer penalties for animal cruelty. Contact your legislators and let them know how you feel.
- Teach school children about kindness to animals. They will learn to respect them and love them.
A chained dog’s life is a lonely, frustrating, miserable existence, without opportunities for even the most basic dog behaviors of running and sniffing in their own fenced yard. Dogs chained for even a few weeks begin to show problems.
Dogs are naturally social beings who thrive on interaction with humans and other animals. A dog kept chained in one spot for hours, days, months, or even years suffers immense psychological damage. An otherwise friendly and docile dog, when kept continuously chained, becomes neurotic, unhappy, anxious, and most often aggressive.
In addition to the psychological damage wrought by continuous chaining, dogs forced to live on a chain make easy targets for other animals, humans, and biting insects. Chained dogs are also easy targets for thieves looking to steal animals for sale to research institutions or to be used as training fodder for organized animal fights. Finally, dogs’ tethers can become entangled with other objects, which can choke or strangle the dogs to death.
In many cases, the necks of chained dogs become raw and covered with sores, the result of improperly fitted collars and the dogs’ constant yanking and straining to escape confinement. Dogs have even been found with collars embedded in their necks. The Humane Society of the United States, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and numerous animal experts have deemed this constant confinement as cruel and inhumane.
Rarely does a chained or tethered dog receive sufficient care. Chained dogs suffer from sporadic feedings, overturned water bowls, inadequate veterinary care, and extreme temperatures. What’s more, because their often neurotic behavior makes them difficult to approach, chained dogs are rarely given even minimal affection. Chained dogs become a part of the scenery and can be easily ignored by their owners.
Chained dogs are forced to urinate, defecate, sleep, and eat in a single confined area. Most owners of chained dogs are less likely to clean the area. Where there may have once been grass in an area of confinement, it is usually so beaten down by the dog’s pacing that the ground consists of nothing but dirt or mud.
The final word is that chaining doesn’t work - except to serve as a form of confinement that is easy for the owner but cruel for the animal. Chaining is not an acceptable practice. It’s a long-overlooked form of cruelty that must be stopped. When living chained, they are not pets - but prisoners.
DON'T let your dog travel unsecured in an open pickup truck bed. Dogs can't "hold on" the way humans can, and any sudden start, stop or turn can toss your pet onto the highway. If the impact of hitting the road at a high speed doesn't kill him, oncoming traffic probably will. It is estimated that at least 100,000 dogs die this way each year.
There are other hazards to consider. Most dogs love the feeling of wind blowing past their ears at 60mph, but that wind can seriously irritate mucous membranes and blow pieces of grit into the animal's eyes. It may require veterinary attention to remove the foreign material, which could cause permanent damage to the eye. Insects or flying debris can also lodge in the nasal passages or get sucked up into the windpipe.
Open truck beds provide no protection from the weather. Rain, snow and freezing temperatures are obvious problems, but even warm days have their dangers. Hot sun can heat the metal floor of a truck bed enough to burn a pet's paw pads. And once the truck has stopped, a dog left sitting in the broiling sun without water or shade may suffer from heat stroke before long.