Dutch Schultz said he might have to get rid of his daughter?s dog because the Carroll commissioners decided Tuesday to prohibit owners from continuously keeping their dogs chained.
“Our petition didn?t mean a thing,” he said asCommissioner Julia Gouge pounded the gavel, which indicated the meeting didn?t include public comment.
Schultz, who lives outside Westminster, took in his daughter?s dog when she moved to an apartment that forbids dogs, but said he can?t afford the kennel the new ordinance dictates.
He and Jessica DeTello, who also lives outside Westminster, collected more than 200 signatures in opposition to the ordinance, which bans owners from tethering dogs outside for more than 12 hours a day and from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Violators risk up to a $500 fine.
Residents have repeatedly complained about dogs chained their entire lives, said Nicky Ratliff, Carroll County Humane Society director.
Perpetually chaining dogs is not only cruel, she said, but also dangerous.
“There have been children ripped apart by chained dogs,” she said. “A child in Manchester had his head all torn up by an Akita.”
Dean Minnich, who was the only commissioner who questioned the ordinance, asked Ratliff what difference existed between Alaskan sled dogs and the canines chained in Carroll County.
“Sled dogs are acclimated to that climate and keep heavy coats,” Ratliff said. “In Maryland in two weeks, it will be 13 degrees. There aren?t greyhounds chained outside in Alaska.”
Paul DeTello, Jessica?s husband, said their dog will now be relegated to a several-hundred-dollar, 80-square-foot kennel instead of their 1,600-square-foot property.
“The people were kept ignorant about how much it?s going to cost them,” Jessica DeTello said.
