Nature Knows: Smart Ideas

Dog Goes On A Shopping Trip And Has The Best Time Of Her Life

Texas’ new law making it illegal to chain up dogs has officially gone into effect

Leaving your dog improperly chained up can leave them with great pain and discomfort.

Chains that are too tight can become embedded in the dog’s skin, and tied-up dogs can be exposed to hazardous weather conditions.

It’s a form of animal neglect that should be a crime — and as of today, it is finally against the law in Texas, who has officially enacted a new law banning leaving dogs chained up outside.

Tougher law for tethering outdoor dogs in Texas took effect today
https://t.co/ZODQ78mG7h @HoustonSPCA @HoustonHumane @bestfriends pic.twitter.com/x0xXByqmAG
— KHOU 11 News Houston (@KHOU) January 18, 2022

The new animal cruelty bill — Senate Bill 5, aka the Safe Outdoor Dogs Act — was announced in October.

The bill bans chain tethers and improperly fitted collars and requires dogs to have adequate shelter from inclement weather.

According to the San Antonio Express-News, that weather includes rain, hail, snow, and extreme high and low temperatures. The shelter is also required to allow dogs to move around comfortably.

The new law also bans the use of heavy, painful chains, which are often used by dog fighting operations.

“What has been used historically, and tragically, for dog fighting is tow chains and logging chains,” Deborah Dobbs, president and founder of the SPCA of East Texas, told KHOU.

“Chains that I can’t even pick up. Chains that one dog would have to wear around its neck for its entire life to reach its food, its water and its shelter.”

By offering more specific guidelines for what is considered animal cruelty, the new law makes it easier for law enforcement to protect animals and bring criminal charges against perpetrators.

“One of the biggest hurdles has been the confusion and the vagueness about what’s considered appropriate confinement, appropriate shelter, appropriate care for the animals,” Dobbs explained.

The new law has been hailed by animal activists as necessary and overdue. It’s especially important in a state like Texas, which sees its fair share of extreme weather conditions that could be a major hazard for dogs left outside.

The state often experiences dangerous extreme heat, with a reported average of 60 dangerous heat days per year. But they’re also no stranger to the cold: the state was hit by an Arctic blast last February, causing blackouts and leaving some dogs left out in the cold.

“This will effectuate change for thousands and thousands of dogs across the state,” Stacy Sutton Kerby, director of government relations for the Texas Humane Legislative Network, told the Houston Chronicle.

“Every season, whether it’s super-hot Texas summers or whether it’s hurricane season or in the northern part of the state where it can regularly get to freezing temperatures, we get reports of dogs that have died outside at the ends of their chains. So we know that this is going to affect animals in a positive way going forward.”

Despite being hailed as overdue and receiving widespread support, the new bill took an unusual and controversial path towards passing. A nearly-identical bill passed the state’s house and senate with widespread bipartisan support last year.

However, supporters of the bill were left surprised when Governor Greg Abbott unexpectedly vetoed it, accusing it of “micromanaging and over-criminalization.”

You can still chain up dogs with no water or shade in Texas after @GovAbbott vetoes bill to ban it, the @TexasTribune reports
https://t.co/lPCNNTZ24m pic.twitter.com/X3OYfiXujg
— KHOU 11 News Houston (@KHOU) June 22, 2021

Gov. Abbott’s veto received widespread backlash — a hashtag claiming #AbbottHatesDogs started trending on Twitter — and eventually the bill got a second chance after the governor put it back on the agenda, eventually signing a bill with only minor alterations to the language, according to the Chronicle.

The law officially went into effect on January 18. We hope this law will help protect Texas’ dogs from cruelty and mistreatment. No dog should be left out in the extreme heat or cold, or have to wear a heavy chain their whole life.

We’re so glad this law has finally gone into effect!
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, by Back to Nature

Humanity

People Donate Thousands Of Knitted Nests To Help Baby Rescue Birds

We can all use a helping hand in life. It’s always a wonderful thing when strangers come together to help out their fellow man, but it’s even more touching when strangers get together to help animals in need. It’s a nice reminder that perhaps there is still some good in this world.

For the Carolina Waterfowl Rescue group in Indian Trail, North Carolina, they were blown away by the overwhelming response of kindness they received in relation to a social media post.

The rescue group helps birds in need, and last March, they put out a plea to the public asking that people donate knitted or crocheted nests for the baby birds in their care.

PHOTO: UNSPLASH/HELLO I’M NIK
What they didn’t see coming was the thousands of packages and handwritten cards that they were about to receive in response to their post.

Some of these care packages and cards even came as far away from other countries like Canada and Japan.

Many of the notes that were written were such things as requests to be updated on the status of the baby birds or others who were happy to donate more all the rescue had to do was “let us know if you need more nests.”

A wildlife rehab specialist for the Carolina Waterfowl group, Bayleigh MacHaffie, expressed in the video below, “It’s just so great that people go through and make the effort to try and help like this. It’s a great reminder for us that people care.”

According to the rescue group, March is always “baby season,” as it’s the time of year whenever they see the most number of abandoned or injured baby birds. As a result, it’s always their busiest season.

According to MacHaffie, this has meant that in the past, they’ve had to help approximately 3,000 baby birds over the course of one summer!

That is a lot of little orphaned birds – and they were mainly songbirds as well. Because of instances like that, MacHaffie emphasized the importance of the knitted nests excuse they actually help a growing bird’s development.

She explained that if the baby bird doesn’t have a nest to hold them as they grow, they’re at risk of having their legs develop at splayed-out angles.

That is partially the reason why a large amount of donations meant so much to the rescue center because it gave them the best chance of helping baby birds develop to their full potential. And that is always a wonderful thing.