SIR: I am responding to the letter to the Editor from Sheila Anderson appealing to the Chatham-Kent community to change the bylaw that allows dogs to be left out in the cold.
No animal should be left 24 hours a day chained up in any weather. The cold weather has been brutal this winter and I can’t imagine someone thinking that it is all right to leave an animal outside.
I know the OSPCA says that if the animal has “adequate” shelter and food/water, the animal is being taken care of by our standards. In truth, the water and food are frozen in minutes and the shelter is little protection from rain, snow and again, brutal cold. Please don’t fall back on the excuse that “it’s an outdoor dog” – that is ridiculous and inhumane.
If you need security, get an alarm or camera system for your house. How much security is a tied-up animal? In the end, it is much cheaper to buy an alarm than to buy and care for an animal. You will save the dog countless days of suffering in the brutal cold (or heat of summer).
Yes, council should change the bylaw and allow animal control officers more authority to take a neglected and abused animal from the cold, but people should also be smarter and more humane in their treatment of man’s best friend.
Kim Tomen
Chatham
