Chaining

I'm of the impression that many people don't realise that some of the things they do can be pretty cruel to their pets. I don't always blame owners (by this I mean people who make small errors, not people who knowingly hurt their pets!)- heck I'm not a perfect pet owner myself. But I'm trying and here's me trying to get others to try, too.

So, first issue I'm going to tackle in a series (I hope...do scold me if I get lazy and not follow up!) of posts would be chaining.

I seriously think many people here don't realise that chaining is a form of cruelty to their dogs.

Why is it cruel?

Let's just start from the least awful reason - it's bloody boring for the dog! Yes, you're slowly boring your doggie to death. Who wants to just sit around with a mobility range of only a few feet? He can't run off any pent up energy, can't play....he can only sit there and do nothing.

Okay so second reason - your dog could get tangled up in the chains. At best this would probably mean your doggie might get pins and needles somewhere when you find him like this and untangle him. At worst, your dog might choke to death!

Third reason - and this is a frighteningly common one - people who chain their dogs up outside to dry off after their bath. And I only have one question. WOULD YOU STAND OUT THERE IN THE HOT SUN? To put this into perspective for anyone reading this who isn't from around here - IT'S BLOODY HOT HERE! Your dog isn't some fluffy towel you want to dry in the sun so it smells nice and fresh okay.

I also have another huge problem with tethering your dog outside - he's vulnerable to attack by other animals and also people. Yes, there are a lot of psychos out there who kick dogs, beat dogs, feed dogs stuff that could kill them.

I haven't actually seen this myself, but I've read that chaining your dog for extended periods of time and neglecting it could also cause your dog to become aggressive. Oh yes and of course negligence! How could I have forgotten to mention that? The whole thing about chaining your dog is basically people who do this just want an easy way to sort of 'solve the problem' of having an energetic little ball of fur running all over and having to watch over it. But once chained up, you can forget about your little problem, right? It almost always leads down the slippery slope to negligence.

Anyways, I don't understand why people have dogs if it's not to love them. I mean, you actually have to go out and get a dog, right? Or at some point you must've felt like adopting that stray. It's not like you can accidentally have a puppy or something. So I don't understand why people don't just let them live inside like a part of the family. Yes, they need to be trained and disciplined but isn't that exactly what a pet owner should do? Not just take the easy way out and chain the poor dog up.

For more about chaining, you can read the peta website or this other one I found while doing a little bit of reasearch on the matter.