Tethering issue firmly back before commissioners

While last week’s ribbon cutting signaled progress for the county animal control efforts.

The question that has been hanging around the commissioners neck for the past decade, whether or not to adopt a no tethering ordinance has yet to be addressed.

Although pleas from some residents and PETA representatives to adopt a no tethering ordinance have been constant, the commissioners have not addressed the issue since March. However, the issue of Bertie County dogs has landed back on the commissions plate.

PETA Director of Community Relations Rachel Bellis appeared before the commissioners last week, once again presenting photographs of emaciated, tether torn canine. Bellis went on to ask the commissioners to adopt an ordinance.

“PETA fieldworkers found the approximately 6-week-old puppies in September on a Bertie County property, where their mother, Hazel, is kept confined outside,” Bellis said. “The owners told us that Hazel had ‘gotten loose’ and given birth to six puppies, one of whom had already died.

“Of the surviving puppies, two were lying inside her doghouse on the verge of death due to a flea infestation that had so severely depleted their blood supply that their gums were white,” she added. “Their owners allowed PETA to take the two critically ill puppies, but one died before our fieldworkers could even get him back to PETA.”

Bellis and some residents have been constant advocates for the adoption by the commissioners of a no tethering ordinance. Earlier in the year, the commissioners passed a motion to place the tethering question on the Nov. 3 ballot. In May, the county was advised the referendum could not be placed on a ballot

Bertie County Manager Juan Vaughan and the commissioners were notified the canine tethering referendum cannot appear on the November ballot. The N.C. Board of Elections notified Bertie County Election Director LaToya Peele of the decision and she forwarded the information to Vaughan.

Although the commissioners had been previously advised the tethering referendum ballot measure may not be approved — since it did not fall into a legislative approved category — the commissioners proceeded with the steps to place the measure on the ballot in anticipation it would be approved.

Since the commissioners were notified the referendum could not be placed on the ballot, their focus had been on the construction of the animal shelter.

“Our fieldworkers have now encountered several dogs whose flea infestations became so severe that they died from flea anemia, or essentially being bled to death,” Bellis said. “An enforceable county ordinance that bans unattended chaining and establishes basic duties of ownership, like applying flea and tick prevention, could help prevent dogs from reaching this entirely preventable state in the first place and PETA has repeatedly called on Bertie County officials to enact both protections.”