I have seen and rescued dogs near death from starvation and thirst because owners left them there chained up while they went out of town for a week, with the dog wrapping itself up around a post, forced to lay in its own excrement and vomit. No food, no water, no shelter. I held a near-skeletal dog, covered in filth, in my lap en route to the vet. Were heard his piteous moans, and looked over the fence. He looked like an Auschwitz survivor. The vet said if we hadn't found him when we did, he would have died a horrible death. Sadly, this is an all too frequent occurrence in Oklahoma. We have a reputation as an animal cruelty state. Lax laws and punishments for animal abuse, and laws treating animals as property and not the sentient beings they are in fact, are something that desperately need to be remedied.

Dogs deserve better than a life on a chain! A dog kept chained alone in one spot for hours, days, months, or even years suffers immense psychological damage.  An otherwise friendly dog, when kept continuously chained, becomes neurotic, unhappy, anxious, and often aggressive. 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. Some chained dogs have collars embedded in their necks, the result of years of neglect at the end of a chain. Chained dogs frequently become entangled in their chains, too, and unable to access food, water, and shelter.

Numerous attacks on people by tethered dogs have been documented. The Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association reported that 17% of dogs involved in fatal attacks on humans between 1979 and 1998 were restrained on their owners' property at the time of the attack, and the book 'Fatal Dog Attacks' states that 25% of fatal attacks were inflicted by chained dogs of many different breeds.

Tethered dogs suffer from sporadic feedings, overturned water bowls, inadequate veterinary care, and extreme temperatures. During snow storms, these dogs often have no access to shelter. During periods of extreme heat, they may not receive adequate water or protection from the sun. Dogs are pack and social animals who feel all the emotions humans do - as a neuroscientist friend states, if it has a spine and hypothalamus, it feels everything we do, suffers sadness, grief, expresses joy and delight just as humans do - and they deserve to be with their family/pack of humans – inside, sheltered and safe.

Some people think dogs are lawn ornaments and it’s perfectly alright to chain them up all day. Those people are abusing their guardianship in the most heinous way for a social animal, and should face the consequences. Sweden has outlawed leaving a dog chained/tethered for more than 1 hour, and animal guardians can be banned from owning animals, fined, & jailed as a result - more than reasonable consequences. Leaving a dog on a chain and ignoring him is also how to raise an aggressive dog.

Please help me put an end to this cruelty by signing.

Thank you,

James Christjohn