Our city has an anti-tethering ordinance. I'm not really sure what it says, but I think the reasoning is to give some enforcement teeth to dogs that become a nuisance when tethered outside.
I too would like to see the evidence where there is a orchestrated effort by any group pushing this agenda.
Like Dog Folks said, I think they are mostly aimed at tethering unattended, a good thing in my opinion.
Every year or two we see a dog that has severe life threatening injuries (or has died) from consequences of being tethered. The most serious was a dog that hanged itself when jumping over a fence while tethered. Owner mistake, obviously. But those with heat related issues because of lack of water and shade are pretty common. Granted, those heat related issues can be as bad with dogs confined in a run or fenced yard.
While extreme bans on tethering are probably unreasonable, the idea of restriction isn't totally without merit. But, how do you set limits and enforce??
Doug, DVM
