Memorial Fund Established to Support Unchain Dogs Campaign

Efforts will Take a Bite out of Dog Fighting

San Rafael, Calif.—An international animal protection organization has established a memorial fund in honor of a Chapel Hill couple who dedicated their lives to helping animals. The Dietrich and Eva von Haugwitz Unchain Dogs Fund, created by the California-based In Defense of Animals (IDA), will support efforts to end the cruel practice of chaining dogs.

“We are pleased to honor the von Haugwitz’s memory by creating this fund to help the tens of thousands of dogs who languish across the nation, chained and forgotten in someone’s backyard,” said Suzanne Roy, IDA program director who resides in Hillsborough, who said that chaining deprives dogs of essential exercise and socialization and breeds aggression, raising animal welfare and public safety concerns.

Roy works with the Durham and Orange County-based Coalition to Unchain Dogs on efforts to pass local ordinances to prohibit or severely restrict dog chaining. The Coalition, founded by Durham resident Amanda Arrington, also has a fencing project, which unchains dogs by building fences for people who cannot afford them.

The Dietrich and Eva von Haugwitz Fund will be used to strengthen the Coalition's work locally and bolster national efforts to enact laws prohibiting the cruel practice of chaining dogs.

“This effort is particularly timely as our nation’s attention has been drawn to the barbaric crime of dog-fighting, which is becoming more and more widespread,” Arrington said, referencing the criminal indictment against NFL player Michael Vick. “Dog fighting and dog chaining go hand and hand, as dogs bred for fighting are often tethered with heavy chains for training, restraint and to heighten aggression. Anti-chaining laws provide law enforcement with another tool to fight this abhorrent criminal activity.”

Dietrich von Haugwitz died on June 25, almost four years after his wife Eva passed away. In the last year of his life, Dietrich became very involved with the Coalition and its local anti-chaining efforts, even adopting a dog named Bessie who had spent her entire life – probably eight years or longer – chained in an elderly woman’s backyard in Hillsborough.

Dietrich and Eva von Haugwitz loved all animals, especially dogs. Dietrich's journey from unwilling conscript in Hitler's army at the age of 15 to dedicated U.S. animal rights advocate is chronicled in the book Eternal Treblinka. Dietrich and Eva spent the last 25 years of their lives helping non-human animals. They established a lobbying arm of North Carolina Network for Animals, hosted meetings of the Triangle Vegetarian Society, and took in needy animals -- from rabbits rescued from labs to neglected dogs and cats.

For more information on the Fund and to donate online, visit www.idausa.org/chained-dogs or locally contact 919-308-3660. To donate by mail, send checks to In Defense of Animals, 3010 Kerner Blvd., San Rafael, CA 94901. Checks should be made out to IDA and earmarked for the von Haugwitz Fund.