Dogs Deserve Better Chilliwack Chapter is having a chain-off event on June 30th. From the Chilliwack Progress Newspaper:

Dog’s best friend chained up for a day

Marion Hewko, seen here with her dog Maggie, will be chaining herself up to protest the chaining up of dogs. Hewko is a member of Dogs Deserve Better. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS
By Katie Robinson
The Progress
krobinson@theprogress.com

Jun 22 2007
Marion Hewko is smoothing her collar and polishing her chain. She’s getting ready.

Ready for what?

Ready to be chained up to a dog house for 13 straight hours.

Say what?

A dog owner being chained to a dog house?

Something’s not right here ...

Oh no, it’s right all right. Marion Hewko – long-time dog lover and owner – is chaining herself up to a doghouse, putting herself into the paws of a chained-up pup, in an effort to eliminate the abuse of dog chains.

“Dogs want to be part of your family, part of your life, they don’t want to be chained up,” Hewko said, as Maggie, her two-and-a-half-year-old, Ritalin-deprived golden lab jumps up and down all around her.

“Dog is man’s best friend, we need to start treating them like it.”

Hewko is a member of Dogs Deserve Better (DDB), a North American organization aiming to release dogs from the emotional and physical abuse of being chained up. Since starting a branch in Chilliwack last year, the organization has removed seven Chilliwack dogs from chains.

“Why have a dog if you’re just going to chain them up?” Hewko asked.

DDB combats against chaining up dogs stating that it is abusive and inhumane. Dogs are naturally social beings that thrive on interaction with human beings and other animals. But if they are confined to one spot for hours, months or even years, they will suffer immense psychological damage.

“An otherwise friendly and docile dog, when kept continuously chained, becomes neurotic, unhappy, anxious and often aggressive,” said Hewko.

Which can result in a threat to the safety of humans and other animals.

The necks of chained dogs can become raw and covered with sores, which is caused by improperly fitted collars or from a dog’s constant yanking and straining when resisting its confinement. Some dogs have even been found with collars embedded in their necks.

“It just hurts me to see a dog chained up,” said Hewko.

When she does see it, though, she – along with the other DDB members – approaches the dog’s owner and tries to educate him or her on the negatives of a chain. But not all owners are receptive.

“Nine out of 10 times, they are upset or angry,” she said. “Sometimes it’s really hard, but you just have to be polite and try to get your message across.”

Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t.

On June 29, Hewko hopes her message will work.

“I don’t care if they laugh at me, because if they laugh at me, but take their dog off the chain, then we’ve won,” she said.

“I just want to be one day, not even one day, in the life of a dog.”

Nelson Mandela once said “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”

Hewko believes that statement stands true, not just for humans, but for canines too.

• The Dogs Deserve Better Chain Off event is on June 29, outside Cannor Nurseries on Lickman Road, from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m.

For more information on DDB, contact Marion Hewko at 604- 858-4177, or visit the website www.dogsdeservebetter.com.