Tying Up Your Dog and Leaving Him on the Street May Soon Be Illegal

By Sergio Hernandez Tue., Jan. 18 2011 at 1:06 PM

Categories: Adorable Animals Who Aren't in Trouble but Are Adorable Just the Same, Adorable Animals in Trouble, City Life, Dogs, Sergio Hernandez

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The good crusaders at Dogs Tied Up NYC (the local blog that takes pity on dogs whose owners tie them up outside by... taking photos of them and blogging about them!) may have reason to celebrate: amNY says the City Council is considering a law that would make it illegal to tie up dogs for more than three hours. We're not really sure what kinds of errands would require you to tie a dog up outside a storefront for three hours. As if someone said to himself, "Hey, I wanna kill four hours at the Union Square Regal watching Colin Firth stutter and Seth Rogen drive around in a pimped-out Chrysler Imperial, but maybe I'll take Buster for a walk up and tie him outside that fancy new Citibank for a while."

But anyway, now that would be illegal! So don't even think about it!

Councilman Peter Vallone, who introduced the bill in '07, told amNY that enforcement would be largely left to the public:

"We don't expect to have police officers running around with stopwatches," Vallone said.

Which is too bad. Because we were really looking forward to that Law & Order: Special K-9 Victims Unit spin-off.

Instead, people would be encouraged to call suspiciously tied-up dogs into the ASPCA. First-time offenders would get a warning, while second offenses would yield a $250 fine. But we think a more just punishment is to just tie the owners up to some scaffolding while the dog's inside getting a mani-pedi.

[shernandez@villagevoice.com]

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