Tethering proposal brings out differences

CHAPEL HILL -- He's an NRA-loving, coon-hunting, native son of North Carolina.

She's a transplant from Texas and an animal-welfare activist.

George Painter, the president of the Eno River Coon Hunters Association, and Amanda Arrington, the founder of the Coalition to Unchain Dogs, met a year and a half ago at a meeting about proposed dog-tethering rules in Orange County.

They had different opinions about the rules, to put it mildly.

The proposed rules, which the county could adopt as early as tonight, would limit dog tethering to three hours in a 24-hour period, require certain equipment for tethering and set minimum sizes for outdoor pens.

At a hearing last week, nearly 30 people testified for almost 90 minutes.

Supporters said tethering dogs can be abusive and causes aggressive behavior.

Opponents, including several dog breeders and hunters, said an animal can be neglected even if it is kept in a kennel or a house.

"This is a people problem, not a dog problem," Painter said at the hearing.

"I agree it's a people problem," Arrington said. "But sometimes you must legislate to educate those people."

Since they met, Arrington and Painter have become friendly, if not exactly friends.

"You've got to love the gal," Painter said. "She's enthusiastic."

Painter invited Arrington to a coon hunters' meeting, and he was shocked when she actually showed up.

"We've agreed to disagree," Arrington said. "He's never going to agree to more laws. And I'm never going to agree to stand by and do nothing."

On a rural road near Hillsborough last week, Arrington spotted a dog slouched in a dirt pit next to a tangled chain.

"He was a bit skinny," she said as her car passed.

Minutes later, she called out to another chained dog, this one barking from the shade of a porch.

"Hey, baby," she crooned.

Arrington, 31, lives in southwest Durham with eight rescued dogs, which she calls her "muttly crew." Her husband, a mail carrier, found one of the dogs on his route and took it home.

Last year, Arrington founded the Coalition to Unchain Dogs, a nonprofit organization that works to free dogs kept on tethers. Volunteers build fences every Sunday for dog owners who cannot afford them. After the fences go up, the dogs can run loose in their yards.

'Much happier'

"I can say firsthand that the dogs are much happier," she said.

Arrington has lobbied for anti-tethering ordinances in Orange and Durham counties.

She described one dog named Fluffy that was kept on a chain with a tight collar. Arrington found blood dripping down the animal's neck and a wound under the collar deep enough to stick her hand in up to the knuckles.

"It was basically just working its way to decapitating him," she said.

At least four jurisdictions in North Carolina have instituted tethering restrictions.

Elaine Modlin, an animal-control officer in Laurinburg, said an anti-tethering ordinance there reduced the number of dog bites and cruelty complaints.

"It's improved the situation all the way around," she said. "We definitely recommend it."

A way of life

George Painter, 55, lives at the end of a gravel road in northern Orange County. On Thursday, sleek-looking bluetick coon hounds lounged under the shade of maple trees, some on long tethers and others in kennels. It was quiet, except for frogs croaking and an occasional chorus of throaty howling, which Painter said sounds like music.

Painter grew up just north of his current home, on a tobacco farm straddling Person and Orange counties. As a teenager, he bought his first hunting dog for $600, a hefty sum in the late 1960s. He says his current crop of dogs, which he takes hunting three or four nights a week, is well cared for.

He concedes that some tethered dogs are abused.

"I understand what Amanda and her group are trying to fight against," he said.

But he said responsible animal owners should not be punished for the behavior of abusers.

If the new rules pass, Painter said, he may have to buy a kennel for each of the dogs he currently tethers, at a cost of up to $300 each.

The dogs will have less room in the kennel than on the tether, he said, gesturing toward a coon hound named Dixie.

"She's more active on the chain than in the kennel," he said. "To create a new law, to me, is ridiculous."

Barbara Sherman, a clinical associate professor at the N.C. State University College of Veterinary Medicine, said tethering is often associated with abuse.

But she said the method of animal confinement should not be blamed for neglect.

"You can abuse those same dogs by putting them in a tiny pen," she said. "We really need to examine the welfare of each dog."