Q. My interest in dog bites, which can be described as intense, stems mainly from my concern for chained dogs. I 
had been a volunteer in a local humane society for 4 years, when I made the decision to enlarge my experience in animal welfare by becoming a municipal animal control officer for the next six years . In that capacity, I witnessed the tragedy of chained dogs first hand.
Since that time I have continued work in various areas of animal welfare as a volunteer, including chairing a municipal task force to revise a local animal control ordinance. While I was assembling materials for the task force study, I became more acutely aware of the connection between chaining and the potential for chained dogs to inflict serious or even deadly bites on humans. While my task force work has been completed and a revised ordinance was adopted in 1999, my interest in discouraging the practice of dog chaining and its endangerment to humans continues. Clova Abrahamson, Bartlesville, OK
A. I too believe that there is a connection, in many instances but not all, between habitual chaining and attack propensities in dogs. Are dogs chained because they are aggressive by nature, or does chaining promote aggressive tendencies? This is a question needs to be determined on a case-by-case basis.
