On Monday May 22, 2017 Nassau County Commissioner's passed an unattended dog tethering ordinance. It allows 24/7 tethering as long as the dog is within visual range of the owner or a responsible person. The ordinance will allow dogs to be tethered without supervision (unattended, not in visual range) for up to twelve hours in a 24-hour period. It allows 24/7 tethering on farms. Other counties have passed ordinances with similar exclusions only to find that they are not able to enforce the ordinance. For example, to be compliant all the dog owner has to do is to tether the dog so they can see it from a window in their home and since the dog is within "visual range" they can leave it there 24/7. They can leave the dog completely unsupervised and unattended for twelve hours in a 24-hour period and still be compliant. In order to enforce this ordinance a sworn statement will be required from a witness who is willing to testify in court that the dog owner left the dog tethered, unattended and the dog was not in the owner's or any responsible persons visual range for over 12-hours period in a 24-hour period. Melissa Day, a former animal control officer in Fernandina Beach stated that in over four years of field investigations, she was never able to get an affidavit from a witness on a tether case. Lora Pecham the Animal Control Supervisor for Citrus County stated that they had the same problem. Fernandina Beach in the process of revising their tethering ordinance to eliminate a ten-hour unattended tethering allowance. Most people in attendance favored for complete prohibition of unattended tethering. Commissioners voted 4 -1 to approve the ordinance. The one vote against was from Commissioner Steve Kelly who stated that he was concerned that the County was setting itself up for failure as he feels the ordinance is not going to be enforced. Commissioner Danny Leeper shared the same concern about enforcement, but voted to pass the ordinance with the stipulation that the Director of Animal Service appear before the full commission at a public hearing every three months and provide a status report as the effectiveness of the ordinance. At this point, we will have to wait three months to see if the ordinance is enforced and if it has any effect on reducing the number of tethered dogs in Nassau County.