A public process to consider whether Orange County’s animal ordinances should restrict the tethering of dogs is now well underway. In the coming months, it is expected that the Board of County Commissioners will receive and consider the final report and recommendations of the Orange County Tethering Committee, a body appointed by the board to examine tethering as a customary husbandry practice and policy issue.

Foremost among the committee’s recommendation is that tethering be limited to a period of three hours within a 24-hour period and governed so that it is not practiced with collars such as chokers. Also recommended is an 18-month implementation period during which there is outreach and education, an exemption for hunting trials and training, and the coordination of community support for dog owners who must transition to another method of confinement.

These and related recommendations are presented in the Tethering Committee’s “Report and Proposal for Ordinance Amendment,” (available at www.co.orange.nc.us/animalservices/documents/TetheringCommitteeFinalReport.pdf.)

The 28-page document discusses the work process that the committee went through during a six-month period in which it met seven times, a process that included two public input meetings and interviews with animal service authorities from other North Carolina jurisdictions where tethering has been restricted or even outlawed. It also provides a context for considering the practice as a policy issue as well as the communal and humane reasons that tethering has been restricted by other local and even state governments.

The report and its recommendations will reach the county commissioners via the Animal Services Advisory Board (ASAB), the BOCC-appointed citizen advisory board on animal matters. At its August and September meetings, the ASAB considered the Tethering Committee’s “Report and Proposal for Ordinance Amendment,” deciding to recommend that the commissioners approve the ordinance amendment proposed therein.

As part of its deliberation, the ASAB asked Animal Services staff to provide additional information on recommended requirements for the minimum size of kennels. The purpose of this request was to ensure that any ordinance amendments ensure humane safeguards with regard to the alternative confinement of dogs. Via a review of such requirements in other jurisdictions, staff proposed guidelines that the ASAB asked be further considered in this policy process.

As discussion proceeds, it will continue to be important to bear in mind that any amendment of county ordinance would pertain only to the unincorporated parts of Orange County. Chapel Hill and Carrboro have their own animal ordinances. Hillsborough, by its own choice, relies upon the county’s animal ordinances and therefore would be affected by a change of these ordinances.

Any changes to the county’s animal ordinances ultimately can only be made by the board of commissioners, the legislative body of the Orange County. No doubt the BOCC will consider this issue in light of the work and recommendations of the ASAB and the Tethering Committee. In the event the BOCC pursues an ordinance amendment based upon those recommendations, it would then also consider information presented at one or more public hearings as required for such an amendment. This process should continue to be of much interest to a cross-section of citizens concerned with the containment and care of our canine companions.