We don’t have sufficient words to express our gratitude for the willingness of the work group to collaborate and work towards a humane solution for Dallas’ animals. It’s a huge understatement to say that the city narrowly avoided a huge misstep when the Animal Advisory Commission (AAC) and staff put forward an ordinance proposal legalizing tethering as a permanent form of restraint. It was the willingness of the core members of this workgroup to collaborate and to share their expertise that helped derail that disastrous ordinance and allowed for another proposal to be seen and heard by council.
After the Quality of Life Committee granted our group permission to present an ordinance in August, the Animal Advisory Commission created a subcommittee to re-look at their tethering own proposal. We have not seen it yet, but have it on good authority that the subcommittee has now landed on the same basic ordinance proposal as ours. We’ll get to see the materials after the city secretary posts them all, but it is an interesting 180-degree turn for the commission to make. Additionally, Dallas Animal Services has also submitted an ordinance recommendation that is 180 degrees from where they started. Again, we believe that would not, and could not, have happened without the workgroup’s willingness to collaborate on an alternative ordinance proposal and without the 3,500 public voices that signed the #keeptetheringillegal petition. Thank you all!
The Animal Advisory Commission meeting is this coming Friday, August 4th, 1:30pm at City Hall. We requested an hour time slot on the agenda and were given 30 minutes, including questions and answer time.
We’re not sure yet which of the two monthly Quality of Life meetings we are slated for, but we should be able to confirm that soon. We would encourage as many citizens as possible to attend when we present to the Quality of Life.
Once we are approved (optimistic, we know) we’ll send our proposed ordinance language to the city lawyers for finalization. The proposed language and the additional language needed can be found at the very end of the slides.
Thank you again to the compassionate, professional, caring, animal welfare leaders, city servants, and community members who helped make this possible.
Below you will find our power point slides (apparently the presentation is too big to embed) We have also have a drop box link to both the power point and our white paper. You can also view the white paper here. The white paper is LONG, but has a lot of supporting information and research. It is worth the 30 minute read to understand how pro-actively addressing animal issues elevates our communities.
We feel this is not just an an opportunity for the City of Dallas to pass an enforceable ordinance, but to educate themselves about animal issues at a strategic level so that they can make informed decisions that elevate both our animals and our human communities.
Pour a cup of coffee, grab glass of wine, get a bowl of popcorn, and get comfy. Welcome to the war and peace of tethering.
When you’re done reading, contact the Mayor and the City Council and let them know you support the Citizens Work Group’s proposal. You can simply say, “I do not want legalized tethering in the city of Dallas and I support the Citizens Work Group proposal.” and include the link to this page. Let’s get this thing illegalized!!
You made it! Thank you for your caring and compassionate heart for taking the time to be informed on the issues. You are appreciated!!! We would also like to give a special shout out to the core of work group. These team members consistently showed up and put in the work with us and we will be forever grateful for their voices and their expertise. Thank you James Bias, Art Munos, Linda Yarbrough, Major Hobbs, Deborah Rodrigues, and Fran Gaconnier. We’d be remiss if we didn’t also thank former councilwoman Tiffani Young for giving us the opportunity to run a citizens work group. Thank you Ms. Young for opening the door.
