I would sue the City of New Westminster for permitting the desocialization of isolated yard dogs. That is what it is going to take to make municipalities ban this. AAS is going to be actively letting the citizens of Vancouver know that we want to know when a yard dog gets loose and attacks, and we want to assist the victims (or the victim's parents as the majority of victims are children) to sue the city. This is probably the only way to prevent all the suffering of helpless dogs, put as pups into yards, pens, and on chains. If that's what it takes, then that's what we have to do.

The City of Vancouver received ample warning of its potential liability in AAS's report "IT'S TIME TO RAISE THE BAR!". In the section of our report, "Public Safety Issues" we included pages of research and statistics from the experts, such as these:

All 16 dogs reportedly were kept as pets or watchdogs or both…In five cases, dogs were chained at the time of the attack. In three other cases, dogs broke their chains to attack their victims. The majority of the victims were children 8 years of age or younger.

John C. Wright, Ph.D. Severe attacks by dogs: characteristics of the dogs, the victims, and the attack settings. Journal of the U.S. Public Health Service, Vol. 100 No. 1.

The general consensus is that chaining out a dog for long periods makes it aggressive. There are even tracts which were found on the ruins of Pompeii suggesting that the way to make you guard dog vicious is to tether him on a short chain…Anecdotal evidence (from my own 11 years of teaching dog obedience classes) says that dogs which have been tied out are either vicious, fearful and hand-shy or both.

Stanley Coren, Ph.D. E-mail communication to Animal Advocates Society of BC, 2/2/01.