Warren Resident Wants To Do More To Protect Dogs

Warren County Commissioners will consider ordinance proposals on how dogs are best kept outside.

Nicole Peak of Warren County Pets Lost and Found said rules for tethering, adequate shelter and weather conditions are not defined. McPeak said the first phase for the county should be defining how to humanely secure dogs outside.

“I helped with securing houses this winter with straw, dog houses with straw and ran across a lot of dogs that had really heavy chains,” McPeak said. “There was a couple that even had padlocks on the chains to hold the dog to it. A lot of the dogs had no hair on their neck.”

McPeak said her recommendation to the commission was for chains to be 1/10 of the dog’s body weight. She said the same specific details need to be applied to what constitutes adequate shelter.

“Even though the Tennessee law is adequate shelter, who is to say what is an adequate shelter?” McPeak said. “So in Warren County, under a porch is adequate shelter.”

She said a dog should not be the only source of heat in its shelter. McPeak said she looked to the American Humane Society for data on how to safely keep a dog outside in hot or freezing weather.

“I had recommended that in freezing weather for example, the dog house be elevated at least one inch,” McPeak said. “It’s been proven by the American Humane Society of the degree changes, it’s very small. So if you lay an igloo house directly on the ground and even with straw, the temperature change is only two or three degrees.”

McPeak said she just does not know if the commission will approve these changes. She said people have specific views about animals and how things have been done for a long period of time. She said a petition on this issue received over 1,100 signatures, but now is the time for concerned residents to come before the commission and give a voice to the issue.

“Faces make much more of a difference,” McPeak said. “So learning when the commission meetings are and speaking on behalf of these animals. Animals are silent but we aren’t. So it’s up to us as animal advocates to ensure their welfare.”

McPeak said she will be at the next Warren County Commission meeting April 19 to continue discussion on this topic. McPeak said that anyone who supports making this change should contact their county commissioner.