CONWAY, SC (WBTW) – Horry County is looking to enforce stricter animal tethering laws that will have harsher punishments.
The issue was discussed at Wednesday morning’s public safety meeting.
State Senator Luke Rankin and his wife Lindsey showed up to the meeting and urged the county to look at updating its laws to reflect stricter punishments .
Some members of the Animal Voice Alliance of South Carolina were also there and made an emotional plea in front of the committee to put an end to animals being left on chains.
Right now there’s nothing in Horry County’s law that gives officers extra authority to crack down on tethering.
A proposed tougher state law dealing with the same issue failed to pass last session.
Lindsey Rankin said instead of waiting for the state to do something, Horry County needs to take action now.
“It shouldn’t be that way; animals are not a right to own,” Rankin said, speaking in front of the public safety committee. “You shouldn’t own one and chain it up out back.”
Rankin said 23 local ordinances in the state have passed with stronger language regulating cruel tethering.
Horry County Police Chief Joseph Hill said he is in favor of an updated ordinance so that officers can have better enforcement.
During the public hearing portion of August 14’s council meeting, Taylor Anderson, the lead animal caretaker at the Grand Strand Humane Society, spoke out about her experience attempting to contact the county after seeing several dogs tethered for 24 hours-a-day near her neighborhood.
“They looked bad,” Anderson said. “They were very malnourished, and it’s just so hot (outside). It was bad.”
According to Anderson, she and her friends called Horry County Animal Control a combined 16 times until an officer was able to visit the property four months after her first, initial call.
“It was very frustrating, because I knew they weren’t being taken care of just sitting out there like that. I could tell; you could see their ribs,” Anderson said.
The dogs are currently recovering at the the Horry County Animal Care Center. Anderson says one dog had to have its leg amputated and another had a collar embedded in the skin of its neck.
Anderson created a petition asking county council to create an ordinance that would make animal tethering illegal. It has nearly 4,000 signatures.
County councilman Dennis DiSabato agrees that something needs to be done.
“After speaking with police, the ordinance that we have on the books does not necessarily have, excuse the pun; it doesn’t have enough teeth in it for our officers to do anything,” DiSabato said.
“It’s up to them now,” Anderson said, “because until they decide, the dogs in Horry County are going to be living the rest of their lives out on a chain.”
To sign Anderson’s petition, click here.
To learn more about the current animal tethering laws in South Carolina, click here.