ohmidog!

If a picture is worth a thousand words, this PETA pictorial on the hazards of chaining dogs is worth about 15,000.

Judging from some of the comments we receive when we post about tethering and the increasing number of campaigns across the country to outlaw it, I’m guessing we’ll hear again — especially given the source — from those who see taking away their right to tether their dogs as tantamount to taking guns away from citizens.

(In truth, we don’t think that — at least with some types of guns and some types of citizens — is all that bad an idea, either.)

Just to be clear, we’re not talking about dogs whose owners might loop their leash around a post to go into a convenience store and get a newspaper — even though that can be dangerous as well — but those dogs who are living life at the end of the chain.

PETA says the best way to help chained dogs is to work with city or county lawmakers to ban chaining.

“All too often, ‘man’s best friend’  is left to spend their entire lives in solitary confinement, trapped at the end of a chain,” PETA says. “Chained dogs are often deprived of adequate care and shelter and are left to suffer through extreme heat or freezing winter nights when all they want are scratches behind the ears, walks around the block, and the opportunity to curl up at their guardians’ feet at night — indoors.”

True, perpetually chained dogs are but a symptom of the real problem — neglect – but, in our diagnosis, it’s a symptom that needs to be treated.

(Photo: Courtesy of PETA)