It sounded like good news, kind of, on the surface.

   Commissioners in Escambia County considered a proposal from Commissioner Grover Robinson about an anti-tethering ordinance to protect dogs in Escambia County from living their lives at end of chains.

   They talked about it a few minutes and then sent the idea to a committee for review. For those of you who love dogs as I do and think you'd just as soon put your grandmother at the end of a chain before you would your own dog, the news sounded hopeful, right? Wrong. 

   You see, the trouble is, no such committee exists.  So what the commissioners actually did was just put this idea of Robinson's on a shelf somewhere, probably never to see daylight again.

   And this couldn't have happened at a worse time: Just last month, authorities reported to a house where a Newfoundland was tied up outside and died because of lack of shelter and water. Died. It died.

   Here's what happened: Earlier this year, the commission voted to organize an Animal Services Oversight Committee,  but it's never gotten around to it. So sending the anti-chaining proposal to a committee that isn't means what, well, nothing.

   Some people don't see the need for a law against leaving a beloved family pet outside in the weather -- the heat, cold and rain -- with little or no shelter or water. They think it's OK to live in a county where dogs suffer needlessly, where dogs are tied-out to guard property and  illegal activities, where people adopt or buy pets they shouldn't or don't really want, and where elected officials don't listen to the people who put them in office.

   I do see the need.

July 16: Northescambia.com