[blueerica]

I am kind of in the middle on this one, as my primary examples of tethered dogs were along the positive range, given that I grew up in Michigan, where our land plots were so big, you really didn't want to fence it.

I tend toward GD in that I'm unconvinced that this will be enforceable and that you can't legislate love for an animal. Of course, I don't get to see every tethered or caged dog, but I can't see how cages are much better for the pet. My most recent experience with poorly treated animals that were aggressive is actually one where the owner kept the poor animals in cages, occasionally bringing the snarling dogs out to the front when his friends were over. Would scare the sh*t out of me. Sometimes in the day, or during the night you could hear dogfights erupt. I just knew these dogs weren't well. Given the new legislation, that guy would still be able to keep his dogs in this manner.

I'd rather see something that had a little more common sense, allowing the public to help in preventing animal cruelty of all kinds, not just dogs on tethers. It seems like the only people who will care enough to change the way they contain their dogs will be the good owners. Owners that don't care are owners that don't care.