I firmly believe that dogs are meant to be inside pets, and not outside pets. Dogs that live their lives outside on the end of a chain often lack veterinary care, adequate food and water, and shelter from the elements. Life on a chain can lead to severe infections and neck wounds from embedded collars. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, a chained dog is nearly three times more likely to bite than an unchained dog.
Dogs Deserve Better, a Pennsylvania education and rescue group, is trying to raise awareness about the dangers and cruelty of chaining. For the last five years, they have run an event called Unchain the Fifty in the hopes of demonstrating the detrimental effects of chaining dogs.
Unchain the Fifty is a chance for people to take a look at life on the end of a chain. Dogs Deserve Better hopes to have at least one person in each state participate in the event each year. Participants spend at least eight hours (and up to a full day and night) chained to a doghouse to help demonstrate the damage that tethering can cause to a dog. During the event, canine friends play in an off-leash area and human volunteers hand out fliers to educate people about the dangers of chaining and advocate laws that limit dog tethering.
Some participants join Unchain the Fifty in the hopes of giving a voice to dogs who can’t speak for themselves. Others take part in the event to honor dogs that they couldn’t save. After too much time on a tether, some dogs simply can’t be rehabilitated. Some want to demonstrate the sheer cruelty of life at the end of a chain.
I think the event makes a good point: life on a chain is a bad idea for everyone — four legged or two legged.