| Contact your local Animal Control (AC) immediately! You may call information or 911 for the number. Complaints should be made within 72 hours of the incident if at all possible. In order for your complaint to be taken seriously and acted upon, please be prepared to give your name and contact information. Take pictures of the abuse if you can in order to provide AC with documentation. You may use a simple, disposable camera. Pictures are not required, however. If you think a situation constitutes abuse, then it is worth making a call.
According to Georgia law, companion animals are entitled to adequate shelter from the weather as well as food and water. The shelter must have 3 sides, a roof and a floor (a dirt floor is not acceptable). The animal must have enough room that he or she is not living in his or her own excrement. Unfortunately, chaining is not illegal unless the chain is so short that the animal is living in excrement. Even a chained dog, however, must have adequate shelter.
For advise on helping a chained dog, see the website for Dogs Deserve Better - http://www.dogsdeservebetter.com. Click on Area Reps to find your local Dogs Deserve Better representative. There are five Georgia reps. The Atlanta rep is Heidi Pollyea - hushpuppies@bellsouth.net. See the last paragraph of this section for suggestions on helping a chained or lonely dog.
If animal control does not adequately respond to a complaint, contact Beth Rook with Georgia Legal Professionals for Animals (GLPA). GLPA keeps track of AC's that don't take animal cruelty seriously and will pressure local officers if they fail to properly handle a particular case. You must make the initial animal control complaint yourself, but if they do not take your concerns seriously or do not take the appropriate action, contact Beth at brookglpa@yahoo.com. She will discuss the issue with you and, if necessary, follow-up with animal control on behalf of GLPA.
GLPA also conducts free educational seminars for law enforcement and animal control officers on Georgia’s animal cruelty laws and how to prosecute animal cruelty cases. GLPA’s website is http://georgialpa.org and includes a document entitled How to Prosecute Animal Cruelty from Start to Finish that is extremely helpful even to the average citizen.
Further information on reporting animal cruelty may be found on the Humane Association of Georgia’s website at http://www.humaneassociationofgeorgia.org/animal_cruelty.htm. This page describes The Animal Protection Act of 2000 and, further down the page, gives detailed instructions on How to Identify and Report Animal Cruelty in Georgia. The following topics are covered: What is the legal definition of Animal Cruelty in Georgia (including dog fighting and cock fighting), What documentation is required and Who do I call to report cruelty against companion animals, animals housed by pet stores, shelters or breeders, equine, other livestock, captive wildlife or exotic animals and circus or zoo animals. These animal groups are protected by separate agencies. Specific contact information for each group is provided on this webpage.
Suggestions for helping a chained or lonely dog:
Often times, neighbors are surprisingly receptive to offers of companionship for their animal. You might consider knocking on the door and asking if you can walk the dog every now and then, play with him in their backyard and/or give him treats and toys. These measures would likely give the dog longer lasting relief than a visit from animal control, though animal control is sometimes the only option.
If the dog has inadequate shelter, consider asking your friends or neighbors to pool some money to buy a sturdy doghouse and then leave it anonymously on the offending neighbor's porch with a note saying it is present for the doggie. I did this once and purchased a doghouse from http://jefferspet.com. The Barney® Animal Hauz is $44. You can also buy a mat for inside the house if you like. It makes lying in the house a little more comfortable, but it's not necessary. The prices on this website are very good and the package arrives in just a couple days. You might consider buying the dog some treats. This website doesn't sell chains, but if the dog's chain isn't very long and you can find a longer chain, that would expand the dog's living area. This doesn’t mean you approve of chaining, but it may be the only way to give the dog more room. If you see that the offending neighbor uses a gift you give him, that might indicate enough willingness that he would allow someone to walk the dog every now and then. Your local Dogs Deserve Better rep may be able to organize volunteers to build a fence so that the dog can be taken off the chain and have more room to move. This is one of the services Dogs Deserve Better offers.
Any of these measures can truly change a dog's life. If friendly measures don't work and you do call animal control, it helps, though is not necessary, if several neighbors call over a few days to increase pressure on animal control to act. If animal control visits, please continue to monitor the situation afterwards, take pictures of any ongoing problems and report the neighbor again if necessary. |
