SC dogs get some slack as new tethering rules advance

Paula Spinale is such an animal-lover that she joined the board of Fairfield County’s Hoof and Paw Society. Animal-cruelty issues were not high on her radar, until cases of dog abuse and neglect started cropping up in her home county.

One dog, found tied to a front porch of a home without food or water, was so emaciated that the county had to put it down. Another dog was found left for dead after it apparently had been tied to the back of a vehicle and dragged.

“We decided to get involved in animal cruelty because it kept coming up case by case,” Spinale said. “We had to push harder for changes.”

On Tuesday, some of those changes got closer to becoming law effect as state senators approved a package of animal welfare reforms drawn up by a group of state officials and animal-rights activists.

Part of the package would limit dog-tethering in South Carolina for the first time. Currently, law enforcement officers can not take action against owners who leave their dogs tied up outside unless they decide the tethering constitutes “animal cruelty.”

The reforms would require that any dog, left tied up and unsupervised for more than an hour, have food, water, shelter and at least 100 square feet of “useable space.” The bill also would ban the use of pronged or “choke” collars.

The proposal will go next to the Senate’s full Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, which could recommend it come up for a vote when the Senate reconvenes in January.

Spinale supports the measures.

But, she added, a new law has to be matched with law enforcement officers and judges who take animal-cruelty cases more seriously. Now, too often, that doesn’t happen, she said, pointing to the case of a man accused of abusing 116 dogs at a Chester County “puppy mill” who received 90-day probation.

“I wish there was no tethering at all,” she said. “But, small steps. We’re going in the right direction.”

The Senate proposal also includes more training for local magistrates on handling animal-cruelty issues.

Others wanted to see more done.

Barbara Nelson, president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals’ Albrecht Center in Aiken, would like to see the state steer more pet owners toward spaying and neutering their pets, reducing the overpopulation of unwanted animals.

Aiken and a few other localities already have similar requirements, Nelson said. Owners of animals already spayed or neutered and microchipped can register their pets for free, but fertile animals cost owners $100 to register.

“If you choose to have a fertile animal, you ought to pay for the risk,” she said.

The panel’s chairman, Sen. Vincent Sheheen, D-Camden, knows activists would like to see more done. But the committee targeted the areas it thought would have the best chance of passing.

“I don’t want to put too much of a burden on well-meaning people,” Sheheen said. “I see this as a no-brainer, common sense.”

Other proposals from the panel include:

▪ Making it easier for out-of-state veterinarians to practice in South Carolina

▪ Setting statewide standards for spay-and-release programs for feral cats

▪ Establishing new standards for animal shelters