ORD-2008-069 - Proposed Animal Ordinance Amendment on the Tethering of Dogs

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P-5 the rights of the citizens. She said that a number of people think that PETA activists drove the subcommittee to make this recommendation. and she disagrees. She is a veterinarian and she cares about the humane treatment of dogs. However, public safety is very important to her. She said that the subcommittee got feedback from animal control professionals in the state who said that they did not find it to be more work or more costly to have tethering ordinances, they noticed a decrease in dog bites, a decrease in puppies, and a decrease in surrenders. She thinks that the benefits that other jurisdictions in the state have seen from restricted tethering would do well in this County. Susan Kelly lives in Carrboro and she has two dogs, which are tethered because they dig under the fence and they jump the fence. Both of them are spayed. She said that the dogs have a very nice area to live in, and she does not know what her option would be other than not letting her dogs outside to play together. Jacky Rosati is a resident of Orange County and she has a dog that lives inside her house. She is in support of this ordinance and emphasized that it is restricting tethering and not an anti - tethering ordinance. She said that she is also here on behalf of Jane Marshall who could not be in attendance. She read a letter from Jane Marshall: `Dear Commissioners, I have been a dog trainer in Orange County for 20 years. One of my areas of expertise is evaluating dogs for aggression and so I am very familiar with what triggers aggression in dogs. Living on a chain deprives a dog of his basic needs and causes high levels of stress and frustration. Frustration is a pre - cursor to aggression. This is a very dangerous type of aggression as the dog is in a highly aroused emotional and hormonal state and will target anything moving_ nearby. The unfortunate victims of chained dogs are often unsupervised children who wander into the dog's space. Mutilating injuries are usually sustained in these situations. I am also a mother, raising my children in this community, and a humane educator. As well as the huge safety factor for children around chained dogs, it is important for our children to leam empathy for everything around them, to grow up to be caring, contributing citizens. Successful humane education programs focus on helping children relate to the animals in their environment and to respect and care for them. Living with a dog chained at the bottom of the garden desensitizes our children to the needs of animals and conveys the wrong message to them. Chained dogs are often the victims of taunts from neighborhood children, a terrible situation for the dog and an incorrect leaming experience for the child. So I respectfully ask you to disallow the permanent tethering of dogs in Orange County, for the safety of our children, for the humane treatment of dogs and for Orange County to become a caring, compassionate, community for all. Jane Marshall' Emily Weinstein thanked everyone for the work on the ordinance and said that she believes that animals do have rights. She has fenced her yard and her dogs come in and out of her house. She supports this ordinance. Lauren Knapp- Resnik lives in Hillsborough and she thinks that everyone agrees with no cruelty to animals, and she is a total animal lover. She lives on 20 acres and has horses, chickens, dogs, cats. She has one dog that is tethered, because she is over protective of him because of an accident that he had while he was running free. She is against this ordinance because it is not a solution to this problem. She thinks that the ordinance should be on a case -by -case basis. 17