Durham County Anti-Tether Meeting
August 27th, 2008The Durham County Board of Commissioners held a public hearing to discuss the proposed anti-tether ordinance at 7:00pm on 8/25/2008. STCA Region 3 Legislative Liaisons Kristin Tresidder and Al Bincarousky attended the meeting to speak in support of the current legislation which already addresses the animal cruelty issues possible with any means of animal confinement.
Of the seventy four speakers at the meeting, sixty seven were in support and seven against, including private citizens, representatives of the North Carolina Responsible Animal Owners Alliance, the Cape Fear APBT club, and the STCA. The seven speakers who were against the ordinance and in support of responsible animal confinement, be it in kennels or on tethers, were often subjected to derisive heckling and veiled threats by the proponents of the tethering ban and kennel size restrictions.
Those in favor of the ban relied almost solely on anecdotal evidence and personal grievances against neighbors to bolster their case, while those against were able to offer scientific studies and existing laws with subsequent penalties as evidence that the new ordinance banning tethering was unnecessary and would not be more effective than the current statutes.
In retrospect, it would have been useful to speak at greater length about the impracticalities of the kenneling size restrictions, as that is being largely ignored by proponents of the ban, as well as those who are against it. Many more people keep their dogs in kennels than on runs, and it is doubtful that all of them meet the minimum size requirements proposed in the new ordinance. If this law passes, the use of a 5′x10′ kennel will become a crime in Durham County, no matter how small the dog it contains, and that could be an eye opener for many who thought that they were in simply favor of ‘unchaining the dogs.’
