Dreamie puppie4/16/2023 ![]() ![]() Sadly, many of these puppies end up in our shelters when they are found to have health and/or behavioral issues and consumers find themselves without recourse when they cannot return the puppy to the store, receive a refund or financial help when their puppy requires expensive medical care. Uninformed consumers flock to these pet stores, lured by the adorable pint-sized puppies being advertised and purchase one, unintentionally contributing to the massive puppy mill operation in the United States. Thousands of puppies across the country and many right here in the DC area are being sold to the public by pet stores for thousands of dollars, having come from cruel puppy mills and disreputable breeders. Kudos to Montgomery County, MD and Alexandria, VA for their anti-tethering laws! That will not only bring relief to dogs currently being tethered, but will prevent others from facing dismal life on a chain. After months of HT and local animal advocates working with the Arlington County Board on this issue, we hope that in October the Board will pass a measure restricting the number of hours that dogs can be tethered in Arlington County. That means that in your own communities and across the state, thousands of dogs can (and do) legally spend their days, months and years chained to trees and dog houses no matter the weather. And to date Arlington and Fairfax Counties are not included in this list. Right now in Virginia there are only 13 jurisdictions that have limits on how many hours a dog can be tethered by a chain. Most also suffer from heartworm and flea infestations, fly bites, allergies and in severe cases – collars that become embedded in their necks causing infection, pain and sometimes death. Dogs who are tethered not only suffer from a lack of physical and mental exercise, they also receive little human interaction. It is quite possibly one of the most cruel ways a dog can live his life. Tethering is the act of chaining a dog outside to a fixed object like a tree, a dog house, or an appliance. But still, rescue is only a band aid on the larger, root problem of why so many millions of animals end up in our shelters, needlessly euthanized or suffer from neglect and abuse at the hands of owners who face few or no repercussions for mistreating their pets. ![]() We are saving lives every day, spaying and neutering animals to help the overpopulation problem and ideally, educating the larger public on the importance of adopting vs. ![]() There are currently not adequate laws in place to protect animals and people from such issues. What would you do if your neighbor was chaining his dog outside for 24 hours a day? What would you do if a friend unknowingly purchased a puppy from a pet store and later found that puppy came from a puppy mill or became sick and died and the pet store refused to address it? Sadly, in Arlington County as well as most communities across the country, there is not much you can do.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |