Exactly thirty days since the Pickens County Council made the decision that a tethering ordinance was not necessary, Whiskey's Animal Rescue found Max, a dog whose story is painful and heartbreaking. Rather than looking at the evidence and tapping into any empathy, the Council chose to listen to groups of hunters, who pressed them to ignore the issue. They cajoled and swayed sentiments to go their way, with the Council ultimately deciding that hunters’ “rights” to chain “working” dogs were more important than any dog’s right to a decent and safe life.

Day after day, for 4 years, all Max knew of life was being hooked on a short chain to a tree with a choke collar. No freedom. No love. No companionship. Millimeter by painful millimeter, the collar gnawed its way into his flesh. With time, as the first collar disappeared, his callous "guardian" merely placed another one on top of the first, which also sank into his festering neck.

Concerned citizens of Pickens County called repeatedly over the years for help, but because there was no law against tethering, no one ever checked on him, and no-one looked under his thick fur at his neglected wounds. All those years passed, and Max received no help because, according to the county legislators, keeping their votes and privileges mattered more than ending the suffering of a living, feeling being.

Where are Max's rights? His only saving grace throughout this nightmare was the population of wriggling maggots feasting on his decomposing tissue, which actually prevented an infection from killing him! What does it say about us humans, when maggots cause more good than we do?

Max was rescued by a persistent and kindhearted delivery person, to whom he was relinquished after a year of rescue attempts. Then, with Whiskey’s Animal Rescue’s help, he was able to receive veterinary care. He is slowly improving and his future is looking brighter than ever. The Rescue was told that Animal Control is pressing for a legal case against Max's captors, but no court date is set yet.

Please share our survey with animal-care professionals who can help us show just how cruel and harmful tethering is to animals.