My wife, niece and I will be travelling to Chicago on June 28-29 to join with other Dogs Deserve Better supporters to take a stand for those dogs who cannot stand up for themselves.  We will be chained for 24 hours to highlight the plight of chained dogs everywhere.

Dogs are naturally social beings who thrive on interaction with human beings and other animals. A dog kept chained in one spot for hours, days, months or even years suffers immense psychological damage. An otherwise friendly and docile dog, when kept continuously chained, becomes neurotic, unhappy, anxious and often aggressive.

As pack animals, dogs have been bred for thousands of years to form a strong attachment to a human family.  In fact, studies show that chained dogs are much more likely to bite than unchained dogs.

Rarely does a chained or tethered dog receive sufficient care. Tethered dogs suffer from sporadic feedings, overturned water bowls, inadequate veterinary care, and extreme temperatures. During snow storms, these dogs often have no access to shelter. During periods of extreme heat, they may not receive adequate water or protection from the sun. What's more, because their often neurotic behavior makes them difficult to approach, chained dogs are rarely given even minimal affection. Tethered dogs may become "part of the scenery" and can be easily ignored by their owners.

Chain Off has been held annually around the 4th of July since 2003, highlighting the reality that while Americans are celebrating their own freedom, there are tens of thousands of Man's Best Friends in every state who are still not free: America's chained and penned dogs.

Do it for the dogs. Each one of us who stands for them greatly increases the odds that less dogs will live chained for their entire lives.

Please visit Dogs Deserve Better to find out more information and to also see what the 2008 Chain-off is all about:

http://www.dogsdeservebetter.org/home.html

http://www.dogsdeservebetter.org/ChainOff08/unchainourworld.html

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