This Is What A Year In The Life Of A Chained Dog Looks Like
Meet the chain gang.
We don't know much about these dogs. Somehow, we don't imagine even their owners know much about them. Their only link to the world is physical. Literally, made of chain.
These images were taken at various homes in Iowa and posted to Facebook by animal rights advocate Amy Haas-Gray.
Through her organization, Hardin Eldora Animal Rescue Team (HEART), she's been fighting to break those chains for years.
It's not about Iowa.
You can probably find a dog in your own neighborhood whose existence can be measured by the links in a chain.
It's not about these dogs.
They will live and die, mostly anonymously. But their images may just inspire us to do more for the thousands of others who live and die by the chain.
Spring.
HEART / Facebook
There is, of course, a culture at work here - an abiding perspective on how owners see their dog. Break a dog's chains and, more often than not, another dog will find himself in that very spot.
As Janice Hannah of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) tells The Dodo, only education can make it a permanent break.
"Shoving information down someone's throat doesn't tend to always work," she says. "You need to know where they're coming from.
"A lot of it is finding out where that owner is on the spectrum of ownership. Why do they own a dog. What is their understanding of the needs of a dog?"
Summer.
HEART / Facebook
A dog that spends his life tied up hasn't really lived at all.
"I call them mushy in the head," Hannah says. "It's like they're in a fog. It's not like they can't interact well with people or dogs. They just don't have the experience. The difference to me is profound. I've been working with dogs in this context for 15 years. And I can tell the difference between a tied dog and a free-roaming dog."
Fall.
HEART / Facebook
Hannah on the slow madness of a tied dog: "That's like me sticking you in a room for the rest of your life and I provide most of your physical needs - I feed you, I give you water, you have a nice place to sleep. How do you feel? People go crazy.
"They're bored. They're lonely. None of their natural needs are being met. None of them. It's a life devoid of anything."
Winter.
HEART / Facebook
"We've got pictures of her going back three years," Haas-Gray tells The Dodo when describing Bella - the only "calendar" dog that we know a little bit about. "Nothing changes. Her little patch of dirt is still there."
Well, not quite. Animal tethering laws are gaining traction in much of the United States and Canada. But more important than legislation is awareness.
Let these images of mostly anonymous dogs herald a cultural shift - one that's more fundamental and lasting than any law.
Let them remind us that there is so much more work to do. And let their chains not be in vain.
Join the fight for anti-tethering laws in your community, as well as the efforts of organizations like HEART and IFAW.