New PETA Billboard: No One Should Be Chained—Not Kids, Not Dogs

Appeal Follows Reports of Camden Couple Who Tethered 10-Year-Old Boy to Radiator

For Immediate Release:
September 12, 2013

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Camden, N.J. – In response to news reports that a Camden woman and her boyfriend were arrested earlier this week for allegedly chaining the woman’s 10-year-old son to a radiator pipe for two weeks, PETA plans to place a billboard in the city to make an unequivocal point: It’s cruel and abusive to chain a child, and it’s also cruel and abusive to chain a dog. The billboard shows a small child chained by the neck and reads, “CRUEL! Kids Don’t Belong in Chains. Dogs Don’t Either. Families Belong Indoors.” It’s also illegal to chain a dog for more than two consecutive hours per day in Camden. According to news reports, the boy and his five siblings have been taken into custody by the state child-protection agency.

“Just as abused children suffer psychologically as well as physically, so do chained dogs, who are subjected to everything from temperature extremes to attacks by abusers to mind-numbing loneliness,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “We call on all guardians to allow their dogs indoors—year-round.”

For highly social pack animals such as dogs, life on a chain is no life at all. Deprived of everything that is natural and important to them, chained dogs often go insane from frustration and lack of exercise. Often, all they have to live on is a tiny patch of land, and they must defecate in the same location in which they eat and sleep. Dogs who are chained in backyards are also commonly denied veterinary care.

Chaining dogs can also be deadly to humans. One study suggested that chained dogs are 2.8 times more likely to bite than unchained dogs are.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.