News
Why Is This Dog Smiling?
June 07, 2007, 12:0AM MT
By Jennifer S Hayes
Austin City Council approves ban on dog chaining and tethering!
Austin City Council approves ban on dog chaining and tethering!
By Lyndon Poole, Chain Free Austin
At approximately 10:30 am today, by a vote of 7 to 0, the Austin City Council passed the ordinance to ban the chaining and tethering of unattended dogs!
The new law will go into effect on October 1, 2007. The delayed effective date is intended to allow citizens time to build a secure and humane fenced enclosure for their dogs, or to bring their dogs inside the family home. The language of the new ordinance may be viewed here:
Ordinance Text (html format)
City Staff has also posted a PDF of the ordinance here:
Ordinance Text (pdf format)
Chain Free Austin would like to thank each and every person who played a role in helping the dog chaining ordinance become law. Please see our "THANK YOU" section a little further down in this message!
PLEASE MAKE A TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATION TO HELP LOW INCOME FAMILIES PURCHASE FENCING MATERIALS FOR THEIR DOGS
From this point forward the campaign will focus on raising awareness about the ordinance, and on helping to raise money to help low income families build fences for their dogs. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to one of the two fencing assistance funds. Your support will help Austin's families provide a much safer, more comfortable, and more humane way of life for their best friends.
If you would like to make a donation to the Austin Community Foundation's Dog Fence Fund, please use the following link to donate on-line:
Austin Community Foundation
Donations by check may be mailed to the Austin Community Foundation, P.O. Box 5159, Austin, TX 78763. Checks should be made out to the Austin Community Foundation, with "Dog Fence Fund" written in the memo line of the check.
If you would like to donate to the Dog Fence Fund operated by Town Lake Animal Center, please mail your check to Town Lake Animal Center, 1156 W. Cesar Chavez, Austin, TX 78703. Checks should be made out to Town Lake Animal Center, with "Dog Fence Fund" written in the memo line of the check.
THANK YOU
Chain Free Austin would like to thank each member of the Austin City Staff for all their hard work on the chaining ordinance. We look forward to working with you as Austin begins to transition into the new law. We would also like to thank the Animal Advisory Commission, who gave the public a chance to speak up on this issue way back in August 2006...and who recently gave the ordinance a very strong recommendation to City Council.
Chain Free Austin would also like to thank each member of the Austin City Council for showing the wisdom, courage, and compassion to pass this historic legislation. Very special thanks also to Council Member Mike Martinez for the wonderful helping hand of support he gave the ordinance.
And a huge thank-you to our new partner, the Austin Community Foundation, for helping to establish a second fencing assistance fund to help low-income families. We are also extremely grateful to Town Lake Animal Center for establishing a fencing assistance fund as a pilot project through their general donations fund.
On a personal note...we want to send a very heartfelt thank-you to Timothy Verret, Patt Nordyke, David Lundstedt, Susan Hendrix, and Lisette Kunz, the founding board members, negotiating team, and translation specialists at Chain Free Austin. These people hung in there strong for the dogs through every hour of the past eleven months, and they never gave up hope.
Many thanks also to Pat Valls-Trelles, Wendy Murphy, and the very kind people at UnchainYourDog.org, DogsDeserveBetter.org, MothersAgainstDogChaining.org, Action for Animals (Austin), and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) for all your invaluable support, suggestions, and incredible contributions.
Most of all, we would like to thank YOU, THE VOLUNTEERS! Each volunteer, endorsing group, and fencing fund donor played a very critical role in the success of this campaign. Without your help, this new law would never have made it off the ground. To all of you who made a call, sent an email, made a pledge to the fencing assistance fund, endorsed the ordinance...to all of you who have dedicated your time and effort to helping our forgotten friends on chains... THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS.
For additional information and resources on chained dogs:
• Chain Free Austin
• Austin Community Foundation
• Town Lake Animal Center
• Unchain Your Dog
• Dogs Deserve Better No Chains Community on Best Friends Network
• Dogs Deserve Better website
• Mothers Against Dog Chaining
• Action for Animals in Austin
• The Humane Society of the United States
Reprinted with permission by Jennifer Hayes, Best Friends Network
Photo credit: photo by Jennifer Hayes