This is part of an article that was in the Sacramento Bee this morning.
Guard Dog, the surly canine character in the popular comic strip "Mutts", is a pitiable creature. Chained to a stake all day., he's got a fierce demeanor, an angry scowl and a deep need to be loved. "How do you guard against loneliness?" he asks.
Animal advocates say life is not much better for real dogs that live their lives on chains or ropes. "They are like ticking time bombs," said Gina Spadafori, a nationally syndicated pet columnist based in Sacramento and author of "Dogs for Dummies."
A proposed law making its way through the state Legislature would help change that, Spadafori and others said. If it passes, California would become one of the first states
in the country to make it illegal to chain or tether dogs to trees, poles or other stationary objects for long periods of time.
The measure, SB 1578, is authored by Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach. It would make it a misdemeanor to tether a dog to a fixed object for more than 3 hours a day. Violators would face fines of up to $1,000 per dog and 6 months in jail. The bill has cleared the Senate and is scheduled to be heard by the Assembly committee on Tuesday morning.
Dogs are pack animals by nature and become neurotic and miserable when deprived of interaction with other canines and people, said Spadafori, whose column appears on page 3 of Saturday Scene. Eventually, she said, they tend to lash out at whoever or whatever crosses their path.
A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that chained dogs are nearly three times more likely than untethered canines to bite humans. Often, it is their owners who become victims. "Dogs are social animals, and when you isolate them they don't recognize their family as family," said Spadafori." They start protecting the pathetic little piece of turf they have, and that's when problems begin. When you read about dog bites that cause injuries, if's often young, male, unsocialized animals living on chains."
Joyce