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)

Investigators say someone tried to burn 14 pit bulls to death in Alabama.

The dogs were found chained in Jefferson County, with a series of fires burning around them. Sheriff’s officials suspect they were part of a dogfighting operation.

Eight individual fires surrounded the dogs when firefighters arrived, according to Alabama’s 13 News.

Investigators found a treadmill of the type used by dogfighters to force dogs to train.

The dogs were all saved and taken to the Birmingham-Jefferson County shelter.

Police in Danville, Virginia, have filed charges against the resident of a home where a dog was found dead, hanging from a cable.

Hope Angela Flowers, 39, who lived at the house on Elizabeth Street, and Maurice Lashawn Holloway, 24, of Pittsylvania County are charged with animal neglect, animal cruelty and tethering an animal, according to Godanriver.com.

The Danville Area Humane Society was called after police discovered the dead animal, according to Paulette Dean, executive director. “It was a gruesome scene … just gruesome,” Dean said of finding female pit bull mix. The body of the animal was to be taken to Lynchburg today for a necropsy.

The Humane Society seized at the same location a male pit bull, which it said had been tethered and left out in the heat for an extended period. Dean described the animal as dehydrated and weak, but said he “will be OK.”

Danville’s anti-tethering law prohibits leaving a dog chained up for more than four hours out of a 24-hour period.

About 100 dogs were gunned down execution-style in British Columbia when a company that offers sled dog tours apparently decided that, due to a downturn in business, it could no longer afford to maintain them.

The shocking revelation of the mass killing (the industry prefers the term “culling”) surfaced through the British Columbia Worker’s Compensation Board, where a company employee filed a claim saying that killing the dogs, on April 21 and 23 of last year, caused him post-traumatic stress disorder.

The SPCA in British Columbia has launched an investigation into the incident.

“Culling” – or thinning the “herd”  — is apparently not an uncommon practice among sled dog companies, according to the SPCA, either in the U.S. or Canada, where the sled dog tour industry is largely unregulated.

The Animal Legal Defense Fund is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone engaged in the illegal killing of sled dogs in either country. 

The 100 dogs – used in sled dog tours operated by Outdoor Adventures — were gunned downed while tethered. The employee, acting under the orders of his boss, began shooting dogs as other dogs watched. Some of the dogs panicked and attacked him as he carried out the task, he said.

The New York City Council yesterday voted to make tethering a dog or other animal for more than three hours a crime, punishable by fines and, for repeat offenders, a possible jail sentence.

First-time violators would receive a written warning or a fine of up to $250, if the animal is injured. A repeat offender could face a $500 fine and up to three months in prison, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“Tethering an animal for an extended period of time is cruel and unusual,” Council Speaker Christine Quinn said. “This bill will not only prevent this type of unnecessary cruelty, but also increase public safety for pedestrians throughout the City.”

The council voted 47-1 in favor of the bill, which prohibits leaving an animal tied up for more than three consecutive hours in any continuous 12-hour period.

The council also approved an increase in the cost of  annual license for dogs that aren’t spayed or neutered, raising the fee to $34 from $11.50.

Revenue generated from the incnrease will be used to subsidize animal population control programs.

A Maryland man who tied his dog outside in a hot July sun, with fatal consequences, was ordered to spend 90 days in jail and do 50 hours of community service.

Judge Janice Rodnick Ambrose suggested Michael Patrick Flemming, 24, of Thurmont, do his community service at the Frederick County Animal Control shelter, the Frederick News-Post reported.

“They may not want you,” Ambrose said Tuesday in District Court. “But I think you should have to work with animals for what you’ve done.”

Convicted of four misdemeanor charges in the July 25, 2009, death of Taurus, a 3-year-old black and brown Rottweiler, Flemming offered a brief statement: “There’s no amount of time you can give me that will erase what I have to deal with every day.”

“‘He was my baby,’”  Flemming said in a two-page handwritten statement. “‘I loved him almost more than anyone in my life.’”

Flemming told the court he’d put his dog out to urinate, went inside and fell asleep. He didn’t mention that he chained the dog to a stake, without  water, an omission the judge pointed out.

“You tied your dog up. That’s why you are here today,” Ambrose said. “Your poor dog is dead because you didn’t love it enough to take care of it.”

A landscaper found the 112-pound dog unconscious in the middle of Flemming’s yard and contacted animal control officers, according to court documents.

Flemming has a sentencing hearing set for next week on fleeing and eluding charges, and another hearing next month on drug charges, according to court documents.

The University of Washington — home, ironically enough, of the Huskies — has banned dogs from campus buildings.

The UW Board of Regents decided in a meeting last month that non-service animals will no longer be permitted inside buildings, according to The Daily, the student newspaper.

The changes also prohibit leaving animals unattended or tethered to campus property and allows them to be seized and impounded.

UW Police Department Assistant Chief Ray Wittmier said the new policy followed a dog bite incident in Parrington Hall.

Wittmier said the department would respond to complaints and ask pet owners to take their animals out of a building. Owners would be cited or banned from campus if they refuse.

“[Violators] will always get a warning first,” Wittmier said. “If somebody doesn’t have ties to campus, they could be banned. Someone on campus will be handled as an employment-type issue. Employment could be terminated. Other actions could affect students and their student status.”

No word on whether the changes apply to Dubs, the dog that serves as school mascot. Judging from his blog, he seems to be allowed indoors, or at least inside the football stadium and basketball arena.