LETTER TO MAYOR
Ask your Mayor and Council for a ban on yard dogs
The only workable solution to the problem of yard dogs
Example letter:
The date
The name of your municipality
Dear (the name of your Mayor) and Councillors,
Animal Advocates Society is proposing the only workable solution to the multi-faceted problem of the existence of yard dogs in our communities.
A yard dog is any dog that is consistently left outside the family home. Many yard dogs live their whole lives, night and day, summer and winter, in a yard, in a pen, on a chain, in a garage, on a balcony or under a deck.
The problem is six-fold
1. Animal Cruelty
It is cruel and inhumane to isolate social creatures. Dogs are allowed to be treated worse than livestock. Their suffering is profound and documented.
2. Public Safety
All data confirms that unsocialized dogs are a grave danger to the public, especially to children.
3. Public Nuisance
The dogs frequently bark, howl, cry, whine, escape, and menace, creating neighbourhood fear and anger. Noise complaints often results in further cruelty to the dog in the form of punishment and muzzling.
4. Public Expense
Complaints and impoundment and disposal cost money, and these costs continue to rise as more dogs are owned.
5. Public Health
The areas the dogs are kept in are frequently contaminated with feces and urine and the food is a rodent attractant.
6. Lawlessness
When neighbours cannot get any action from city hall or the SPCA, they are forced to break the law by removing and rehoming the dog. A broad spectrum of people have been forced to do this, from off-duty police officers, crown prosecutors, grandmothers, single mothers on welfare, wealthy socialites, ministers, community activists, and untold numbers of ordinary people who would not otherwise dream of committing a felony. They are forced by the lack of action from political leaders and the SPCA to become lawless.
The solution is simple and easily enforced
It is a ban on the keeping of dogs outside the family home for more than one hour at a time during the day and no more than twice during a day, and not at all at night, and not unattended. We suggest that day be taken to mean from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. "Unattended" means when no one is in the residence to respond to a noise or other complaint. Those who intend to keep a dog outside will be discouraged by this restriction and will tend not to get a dog.
Education ought to attend legislation, but is not a substitute for legislation. It took legislation to ban public smoking and to ensure seat belt wearing. Education can take several generations to work, and suffering dogs cannot be left to suffer.
No tethering laws mean well, but result in dogs being kept in pens instead.
Please tell me if would you support a ban on yard dogs? If our municipality were to adopt a ban on yard dogs, it would be the first in North America to do so and would rightly deserve to be very proud.
Your name
Your address
Your phone number
Attachments to your letter:
Behavioural/psychological effects of isolation, chaining, and substandard living conditions
Physical effects of isolation, chaining, and substandard living conditions
Public safety issues of isolation, chaining and substandard living conditions
Local expert opinions:
Dr. Stanley Coren:
Though best known to the public for his series of best-selling books on dogs, Stanley Coren is also a well respected scientist and Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia. He has earned the title of Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in recognition of his contributions to psychological research.
"The general consensus is that chaining out a dog for long periods makes it aggressive. There are even tracts which were found in the ruins of Pompeii suggesting that the way to make your guard dog vicious is to tether him on a short chain. If you believe anecdotal evidence (this from my own eleven years of teaching dog obedience classes), dogs which have been tied out are either vicious, fearful and hand-shy or both."
Gary Gibson, founder, Custom Canine:
Developed standards for training and placement of therapy and institute dogs throughout the lower mainland.
Developed a program to work with psychiatrists who help people dealing with their fear of dogs.
In 1990 received Certification to adjudicate the Canine Good Citizen Test, an internationally recognized standard for companion and therapy dogs.
Co-developed the Canine Super Citizen Test, which is being used as a standard for social and assistant dogs in BC.
"Society is starting to realize that dogs have psychological needs. When you start messing with a dog's mind and not giving it the things it needs on a day-to-day basis, you are abusing that dog. And those needs are much greater than food, water, and shelter. In particular dogs need to feel part of a pack, even if that pack is human."
For BC municipalities' addresses and contact information click here.
