Ursula
Goetz, Lauren Blann, Victor Amato, Chief of Police of the MCSPCA's
Law Enforcement Division
Chained in Chicago, 24 Hours,
June 27-28
How the other half lives
Volunteers chain selves to doghouses to make a point
BY CHERYL MILLER • CORRESPONDENT • July 7, 2008
It's one thing to pass by a few doghouses while driving down the winding, quiet streets of Eatontown.
It's quite another thing when those chained to the doghouses aren't dogs at all, but humans.
And for anyone passing by the front lawn of the Monmouth County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MCSPCA) two Saturdays ago, when the temperature topped 80 degrees, hopefully it was a sight they wouldn't forget.
"We need to bring awareness to the community about the suffering of animals that are chained to dog houses 365 days a year," said Ursula Goetz, Executive Director of the MCSPCA, and one of those chained to a doghouse. "It's cruelty."
She and other employees and volunteers for the MCSPCA were participating in Chain-Off 2008, a nationwide attempt to get dogs off chains and into homes. Established by Dogs Deserve Better, an organization dedicated to changing laws to improve the quality of life of chained dogs, groups around the country were staging similar protests from June 27 to today, Goetz says.
They picked a hot day to do it.
"It's brutal," said Lauren Blann, an MCSPCA volunteer who'd been chained to a doghouse for more than two hours. "But at the end of the day, we're going to get up and leave, but dogs will still be chained."
Four states have statutes forbidding the practice: in Missouri, parts of North Carolina, Florida and New Orleans in Louisiana, those who "tether" animals to doghouses or any inanimate objects (such as telephone poles) can accrue fines running from $20 to 250. But there is no such law in New Jersey, and it is up to people here to contact their legislators and ask for change, Goetz said.
"People just don't get it," said Chief of Police of the MCSPCA's Law Enforcement Division Victor "Buddy" Amato, who spent an hour chained to a doghouse and admitted that even his back was sweating. "When you chain a dog, so many things can happen to it."
He recalled a recent case in which a dog tried to jump over a five-foot fence and hung itself on a four-foot chain.
"A lot of dogs jump to death on their own doghouses," he said.
When the weather gets as hot as it was that day, any water left out for a pet will be too hot to drink after half an hour, he said. That is, if the dog hasn't knocked it over with his chain, or kicked dirt in it, he added.
"If you're not going to have your pet be part of your family, then why have a pet?" he asked.
Goetz estimated that 40 percent of the cruelty investigations the MCSPCA pursues involve dogs chained to doghouses. Within the past six to seven months, two chained dogs died from heat exhaustion, and two from overexposure to the cold.
And it's not just the heat that can harm dogs.
"I wonder how many are out there suffering that we don't know about," she said, running off a list of ailments that could affect them in the summertime: fly-bitten ears, anemia, flea dermatitis, dehydration, dementia, or even the ever-present chain growing into their skin.
"Can you imagine a Siberian Husky tied to a doghouse in this heat?" she asked.
But dogs aren't the only victims of chaining, she continues. Goetz points out a sheet of paper with children's pictures and names on it; one column represents the children injured by a chained dog, the other, those children killed by one. According to the Dogs Deserve Better Web site (www.dogsdeservebetter.org), at least 214 children were killed or seriously injured by chained dogs across the country from October 2003 through June 2008.
"What happens is after months — years — outside, an animal starts becoming aggressive," Goetz said. When unsuspecting children enter the dog's territory, the long unsocialized dog will act out, she said.
But it's not the animal's fault, she stressed.
"It's what people do to the animal that makes him that way," she said.
"If people aren't going to make a change for the dogs, at least they can make a change for the children," Blann said.
For now, they hope someone unaware of the problem will notice three people sitting chained to doghouses in the baking sun, and maybe they'll stop and get some literature, or even make a donation.
It starts to rain, just a little, but enough to give everyone a cool break from the heat. A new volunteer comes in to replace Blann, who carefully removes her chain.
"How could I live like this 24 hours a day, seven days a week?" she asked.
"It's heartbreaking that people would do this to man's best friend," Goetz said.
