The Delaware Senate has scheduled a vote on a dog tethering bill that would treat many responsible sporting dog owners as criminals. Your calls are needed today!
Senate Bill 211, sponsored by Senator Patricia M. Blevins (D- Elsmere), would add commonly used dog tethering practices to the state’s definition of animal cruelty. Animal cruelty is a Class A misdemeanor in Delaware. The bill would:
- Prohibit tethering a dog for more than 18 total hours in a 24-hour period;
- Completely prohibit tethering a dog under the age of four months for any amount of time; and
- Ban tethering a nursing female dog if any of its offspring are “present.”
The bill has been reported out of committee and is scheduled to be voted on by the full Senate on Wednesday, June 6th. All sportsmen and sporting dog owners need to contact their state senators and ask them to vote no on Senate Bill 211.
“Sporting dog owners safely and humanely tether their dogs and should not be treated as criminals,” said Jeremy Rine, U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance in-house counsel and associate director of state services. “Setting an arbitrary cap on the amount of time a person can keep a dog tethered will only criminalize responsible dog owners and will do nothing to stop bad actors who are treating dogs poorly.”
Further, the bill’s complete prohibitions on tethering dogs under four months of age and nursing females while their offspring are present is vague and could be interpreted to even prohibit keeping these types of dogs on a leash.
Take Action! Delaware sportsmen should contact their state senators TODAY and ask them to oppose Senate Bill 211. Visit the Legislative Action Center for your Senator’s contact information.