Amanda Arrington, who moved to Durham last summer from East Texas, and who is the spokesperson for the Coalition to Unchain Dogs, said that when it came to addressing animal welfare issues in her hometown, she and her husband were pretty much it. She found a different sort of attitude here.

"When I came here I was overwhelmed by the interest of people. There is a great volunteer spirit here," Arrington said.

She soon joined up with several other people, mostly citizens of Orange and Durham counties, to form the coalition.

"Our main goal is to get legislation passed," she said. "We want a law that is enforceable, severely restricting or completely disallowing chaining."

In Orange County it is legal to keep a dog on a chain. The Orange County Code of Ordinances states, "If any unattended animal is restrained by a chain, leash or similar restraint, it shall be designed and placed to prevent choking or strangulation. Such chain or restraint shall not be less than ten feet in length and either on a swivel designed to prevent the animal from choking or strangling itself, or on a chain run." Constant shelter and clean water are also a must and food on a daily basis is required.

There are four places in North Carolina that have passed legislation banning chaining -- the counties of New Hanover and Scotland, and the cities of Laurinburg and Roanoke Rapids. Arrington has sought advice from them.

The Orange County Animal Services Advisory Board is forming a tethering subcommittee, whose members are to be appointed by the Orange County Board of Commissioners at its meeting on Tuesday.

Suzanne Roy, a member of the coalition who lives in Hillsborough, has applied to be one of its three at-large representatives.

"I have been concerned since I moved here two and a half years ago and started seeing dogs on chains all over the place and the miserable life they lead at the end of the chain, " said Roy, the program director for the international nonprofit In Defense of Animals. "I drive past several different sets every day when I take my daughter to school."

Roy and her husband and daughter spent the last several months helping rescue a neighbor's dog who lived on a chain. The dog was starving. Its owner was an elderly woman with dementia, and so Roy began caring for both her and the dog until the woman entered a nursing home.

The dog was renamed Bessie and was adopted through Roy's efforts. Prolonged chaining often causes aggression and antisocial behavior in dogs, but Bessie is flourishing in her new home.

This example is joyous and unique. The coalition's mission is not to get owners to give up their dogs, unless they so desire, but to educate people that life on a chain for a dog is cruel and unnecessary.

Ellen Whitaker, a coalition member who lives in Hillsborough, said that while members of the coalition believe that the use of chains as the primary means of confining dogs is inherently cruel, the group is not implying that everyone who chains dogs is cruel. "We don't believe that chaining would be the first choice for many people who are currently using chains," Whitaker said. "Many would prefer fencing, but the cost of fencing materials is often prohibitive. And unless someone has the strength and know-how to erect the fence, there is the additional cost of labor."

In this vein, she formed the Fence Fund Committee, a subgroup of the coalition, to raise money to help people enclose their yards and provide doghouses, if needed, to get dogs off chains.

There are many things one can do to assist the coalition.

Whitaker is organizing a yard sale to be held on April 14 from 8 a.m. to noon at the parking lot of the Healthy Start Academy at 807 Chapel Hill St. in Durham. E-mail Whitaker at e-whit@earthlink.net to donate or help with the sale.

Volunteers are needed to help build fences and doghouses, and donations of materials -- from boxes of nails on up Ñ to help with these projects will be welcomed with open arms and a lick of thanks from dogs whose worlds are about to expand.