Here’s big tail wags to Tammy Grimes and all the other Dogs Deserve Better Volunteers who braved the sun and rain!

In 39 states, volunteers spent time chained to dog houses to protest the chaining of our canine companions. Dogs Deserve Better, the group based in Pennsylvanie and led by Tammy Grimes, organized the event.

Here is a sampling of articles from around the US about the national protest.

This is an article from MSNBC.

Tied to a cause: Dog lovers chain selves to poles
Protesters draw attention to cruelty, adverse effects in tethering pooches

Updated: 1:08 p.m. CT July 2, 2007

REDMOND, Wash. – Seven dog lovers who oppose the chaining of pets spent part of the weekend tethered to dog houses and poles as their canine friends frolicked in an off-leash area of a park.

We do it for the animals because they cant speak for themselves and we want people to know that it is actually a form of cruelty,” said Susan Hartland, who handed out fliers to passing dog owners Saturday while tied by a rope to a lawn stake.

Hartland was in Marymoor Park as a representative for Dogs Deserve Better, the Pennsylvania-based group that organizes an annual event called Unchain the 50.” It was the fifth year for the protest, meant to raise awareness of what the group believes are the detrimental effects of chaining dogs.

Follow this link to read the rest of the article.

This article is from the Houston Chronicle.

Woman chains self to protest similar treatment of pets
Pasadena grandmother spends 12 hours in yard

By TINA MARIE MACIAS
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Despite the steady rain that fell on Pasadena, Penny Hann sat in her front yard Monday and did what she had promised: chained herself to a doghouse.

“I said I would be out here in rain or shine,” she said. “So here I am.”

Although she was under a blue canopy, water leaked onto Hann, one of the 104 people in 34 states who planned to chain themselves to doghouses in protest of the practice of keeping dogs on chains.

“It’s very inhumane to put a dog on a chain,” she said. “They’re pack animals and they don’t understand why they can’t be with the rest of the pack.”

Equipped with pamphlets and buttons to help educate passers-by, and a romance novel to help her pass the time, Hann, 51, put a black leather collar on herself at 6 a.m. and chained herself to a doghouse her husband built for their three dogs.

She soon was joined by Mitzi, her dachshund, and her grandsons, Chase, 6, and Ethan, 10.

The nonprofit group Dogs Deserve Better has organized the annual “Chain Off” around the July 4 holiday for five years. The organization, based in Tipton, Pa., gained some attention last year when founder Tammy S. Grimes was arrested in Pennsylvania after refusing to return a sick dog she had unchained, saying its life was in danger. The case is still pending.

The largest Chain Off was in Atlanta this weekend, when representatives from nine states chained themselves to a doghouse in a dog park for 29 hours, the group said.

Hann wants to do that next year. This year, however, the Deer Park Independent School District telephone operator settled for 12 hours of local attention.

“Some of the neighbors have come by to say ‘Hi,’ ” she said. “Some of them say I’m crazy.”

Although Hann said she doesn’t see any animal abuse in her neighborhood, she planned to stay put until 6 p.m. long enough to be seen by people going to work and returning home.

Follow this link to read the rest of the article.

And this one is from Pensylvania’s The Sentinel.

Woman protests chaining of dogs
She spends birthday wearing collar attached to doghouse

By Heather Stauffer, Sentinel Reporter, July 2, 2007

Last updated: Monday, July 2, 2007 11:14 AM EDT

Although the chain on her neck grew heavy, Lisa Fischer says spending her birthday chained to a doghouse was fantastic.”

I can’t say that I had any expectations for the day,” says the Mt. Holly Springs resident, who turned 37 on Sunday and celebrated by taking part in the annual Chain Off event sponsored by Dogs Deserve Better.

For eight hours, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Fischer sat at a giant doghouse her boyfriend built for her, wearing a collar and chain.

I started about 10 minutes early, and within 15 minutes I could feel myself already pulling,” she says. Definitely I was very aware of the collar and the chain all day.”

But, she says, the weather was perfect, and she was buoyed by the support of friends, family and strangers who stopped by to chat with her.

I kept expecting someone to come and look me in the eye and said, What are you doing,'” she says. Instead, she says, the people who didn’t know simply started asking questions.”

Everyone was just completely supportive,” she says. I heard so many stories today from people, from folks that have seen dogs that have been neglected and abused and just didn’t know what to.”

Steady traffic

She was glad to be able to give them literature – and to be able to donate the more than $1,100 to help further the mission of Dogs Deserve Better.

Fischer says she came across the nonprofit organization’s Web site about a year ago. At the time, Fischer says, she was researching after noticing that a neighbor of her parents kept his hunting dogs in rabbit hutches in his back yard.

It disturbed me so much,” she says. I typed in hunting dogs’ and the Web site (for Dogs Deserve Better) came up.”

Fischer immediately found herself agreeing with the organization’s goals, which includes helping people finds way to bring dogs – chained or in cages – indoors through training, funding for fences and more.

As soon as I read about it, I responded,” she said.

I talked to people all day long,” she says, estimating that between 50 and 60 people stopped by the Newville Road property where she placed her dog house to take advantage of garage sale traffic.

More time next year?

Friends gave her little crafting projects to keep her busy, she says, but she never got a chance to do any of them.

I was fortunate, as opposed to dogs that have no activity all day,” she says. The lifelong animal lover’s two dogs, Penny and Sierra, don’t even wear collars unless they’re going for a walk or to the vet.

They’ll never have to know that kind of horror,” she says of chaining her dogs.

Follow this link to read the rest of the article.