The law's message is good because it says that the habit of continual tethering is not socially acceptable anymore. But it offers little real relief from all the ways people can cruelly confine dogs.

In the past two years, when the SPCA has been telling people that a dog's tether has to be much longer, or that the dog has to be put on a trolley line instead of being tethered, AAS has learned that many people then do put the dog on a trolley line, or put it in a garage, or in a pen, or under a porch. That is even worse for the dog than tethering because now it is not only physically restrained but its vision is also restricted. Most of the time dogs in garages are put in a cage or on a short tether to prevent them from scratching the car.

What would you choose if you were given the choice of a rope and a dog house outside where you can at least see the world go by, or a rope in a garage, or solitary confinement in a tiny pen at the back of the yard in filth and with no view of anything?

Another troubling and sad aspect is that the public can no longer see the dog so easily, so untethered dogs' hidden suffering means there is no hope of any help at all.

Notice that the California law still permits tethering to a trolley line. AAS has had several reports recently that tethered dogs have been put on trolley lines after the SPCA has attended on a 'tethered dog' complaint. Poor old Finnegan was on a trolley line, but that didn't prevent him from freezing to the snow. I'd like to know if any dog thinks being tethered to a trolley line is much different than being tethered to a dog house.

"Trolley dogs" lives are no better than tethered dogs' lives...