Spending a day in the dog house
Mt. Holly woman advocates for more humane treatment
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Article RatingSome girls ask for diamonds on their birthday. Others may demand shoes or purses or other pieces of jewelry.
Lisa Fischer asked for a dog house.
“I just wanted to do something a little different on my birthday,” she says with a laugh.
On Sunday, Fischer, a Mt. Holly resident, will celebrate her 37 years by chaining herself to the people-sized dog house constructed by her boyfriend, Bob, in support of Dogs Deserve Better, a nonprofit organization dedicated to freeing the chained dog.
The event helps kick off the organization's fifth annual “Chain Off,” where the goal is to get at least one person from each state to agree to be chained to a doghouse for up to 24 hours as part of the “Unchain the 50” campaign.
Fischer was the first person from Pennsylvania to sign up for the event.
“I just liked what they were doing,” she says.
Educational mission
On Sunday, Fischer will set up the dog house in front of a friend's home on busy Newville Road heading out of Carlisle. Fischer says she purposely chose that location because the high-volume traffic should draw attention to her cause.
If seeing a grown woman sporting a collar and an eight-foot chain that's attached to a dog house isn't enough to attract scrutiny, Fischer hopes the yard sale, which is planned at the property for the same time, will. There also will be a table set up with information about the Dogs Deserve Better organization.
“It might be a way to get some people to come up the driveway,” she says.
A life-long animal lover who has two dogs of her own, Fischer says she came across the Dogs Deserve Better Web site about a year ago. At the time, Fischer says, she was researching the Internet after noticing that a neighbor of her parents kept his hunting dogs in rabbit hutches in his back yard.
“It disturbed me so much,” she says. “I typed in hunting dogs and the Web site (for Dogs Deserve Better) came up.”
Fischer immediately found herself agreeing with the organization's goals, which includes helping people finds way to bring dogs - chained or in cages - indoors through training, funding for fences and more.
“As soon as I read about it, I responded,” she said.
Chaining ‘horror'
Fischer kept in touch, but once she came across the details for the Chain-off event, she knew she wanted to participate, if only to get an inkling of what dogs must feel like when chained outdoors 24/7.
“I thought, ‘Will I be bored?” she says. “Are people going to want to pat me on the head? What is the thought process that they're going through?”
For the record, Fischer keeps her dogs “naked,” meaning Penny and Sierra don't even wear collars unless they're going for a walk or to the vet.
They'll never have to know that kind of horror,” she says of chaining her dogs.
Although known as a dog advocate, Fischer admits her friends and family found her choice of a birthday celebration a little strange at first.
“The first response I got from everyone was an ‘Ohhhh,'” Fischer says.
Her boyfriend felt similar, but once he understood Fischer was serious, he offered to build her the dog house.
“He knows that I'm dog-crazy anyway,” she explains. “He said, ‘If that's how you want to spend your birthday, then OK'.”
After people got over the initial shock, Fischer, who works as a receptionist at the Pennsylvanian Coalition Against Domestic Violence, says she received nothing but support.
Indeed, during her eight- hour stint chained to the dog house, Fischer says, friends, family members and co-workers have offered to stop by to show their support.
Even so, Fischer says, she expects some people may not be so supportive her stance. In that case, she looks forward to the chance to get people to change their views. The chain, she thinks, will make the impact
“I really want to show people what it would be like to be out there,” she says.
