More than 40 Ohio dogs lived chained in a yard
No state law prohibits tethering canines outside
Delaware County officials removed more than 40 dogs Sunday that were living outside, chained up in a wet and muddy yard north of Sunbury.
Although people expressed concerns for several years beginning in 2020 about dogs living outside at the property, Delaware County Dog Warden Mitchell Garrett said he could not take action when previous complaints were made, according to records provided by the Sheriff’s Office.
“At that point, there was only six dogs,” Garrett said at a news conference on Monday. “They were being kept outside and they were living outside, but he was keeping them, taking care of them within the standards of the law.”
Ohio does not have a law restricting the tethering of dogs outside, unlike about half of U.S. states that have passed laws addressing this — including restricting the length of time a dog can be tethered or banning it during severe weather.
Marci Dop, founder and director of Rico Pet Recovery, a nonprofit group based out of Lewis Center that’s helping with some of the dogs rescued Sunday, told The Dispatch her group has been yelled at before because they could not remove a dog that was living outside.
“Ohio law has made it hard for us. People believe that if a dog is in a bad situation, rescue groups or the dog warden should be able to come and get it,” Dop said. “It’s really hard to walk away from situations where a dog is just being tied outside in deplorable conditions.”
As long as the dog has something like a porch to go under, a bowl of water and a bowl of food, it’s acceptable to tether the dog outside day and night under Ohio law, Dop said.
In the absence of a state law, dozens
of cities and townships across Ohio have passed ordinances restricting tethering, including the five largest cities, according to Columbus Dog Connection, a nonprofit rescue group.
Columbus residents can face a misdemeanor charge if they chain a dog outside between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. or during severe weather. Bexley and Whitehall have passed similar ordinances.
The city of Delaware, not Delaware County, passed an ordinance in 2017 that places restrictions on tethering a dog outside, including prohibiting it for more than two hours with no one home. The city code also outlines shelter requirements for dogs to protect them against inclement weather.
According to the Humane Society of the United States, long-term restraint is bad for dogs physically and psychologically. On the other side, in 2018, the American Kennel Club Board of Directors stated that it opposes arbitrary restrictions on tethering, saying it can be a “practical and humane method for training and restraining dogs in a variety of circumstances.”
The AKC’s blog post about the position statement noted a tether can sometimes provide more space than a kennel and sled dog owners commonly use tethers and weatherproof dog houses for breeds that thrive in cold climates.
The post also said, “in cases where cruelty or neglect occurs where dogs are tethered, cruelty or neglect laws should be used to prosecute the crime.”
Katrina Johnson, the assistant director of Columbus Dog Connection, said owners should be allowed to tether their dogs while supervising them outside when fencing is not an option, but she thinks Ohio should ban tethering dogs that live exclusively outside.
One of Johnson’s dogs that she adopted in 2022, Gabriel, came to Columbus Dog Connection with an injury across his chest.
“We believe he was outside on a tieout that got wrapped around him and the metal inside cut across his chest,” Johnson said.
John Barnes Jr., a former Ohio House representative from Cleveland, who in 2015 proposed a bill to restrict the outdoor tethering of animals, told The Dispatch he thinks the state should revisit the topic.
The 2015 bill would have expanded on Ohio’s existing laws prohibiting cruelty to companion animals like dogs by banning tethering an animal outdoors for more than six hours in a day, overnight and during severe weather, among other restrictions. The bill did not make it out of the House’s Agriculture and Rural Development Committee.
Barnes said high-profile incidents drive public policy and this situation in Delaware County could spark interest in the Ohio General Assembly.