URGENT: Multiple Chained Dogs Found Dead; County Officials Must Ban Tethering Now

For Immediate Release:
November 13, 2025

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

This week, PETA fieldworkers have discovered the decomposing remains of four emaciated dogs—all still chained—on properties in Bertie and Hertford counties, as well as a surviving chained dog who was also emaciated, starving, dehydrated, and weak. In response, PETA is renewing its call on elected officials to pass emergency ordinances to ban the continuous chaining of dogs and implement mandatory standards of care to prevent further suffering and death.

In Bertie County on Monday, PETA’s fieldworkers found the remains of three dogs—Juju, Drako, and Eve—on a property they had previously visited regularly to provide free doghouses, food, water buckets, and other essentials. The team had begged the owners to let them take the dogs so that they could have the chance to find a home where they would be kept indoors and get the care they needed; one of PETA’s fieldworkers had gotten the owner’s permission last winter to take Juju home with him during a cold snap, to prevent the tiny chihuahua mix from succumbing to the harsh elements. Despite repeated pleas, Juju’s owner refused and insisted that the dog be returned, and he was chained back outside.

In Ahoskie on Sunday, PETA fieldworkers found the body of a dog named Coco tethered by a heavy metal chain to a doghouse, just feet away from an emaciated, chained dog named Lucky, with no food or water in sight. The animals’ owner told the fieldworker that no one had bothered to feed or water the dogs for a month. Lucky was signed over to PETA and has since received food, water, and veterinary care. He will be transferred to the Virginia Beach SPCA for additional rehabilitation and eventual adoption. Photos are available here.

“Dogs are starving to death while local officials willfully ignore the epidemic of animal neglect raging in northeast North Carolina,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “Colder weather is here, and more dogs will die if authorities don’t send a clear message that leaving animals to suffer, starve, and freeze is cruel and illegal. PETA urges residents to demand that their elected officials stop turning a blind eye and pass emergency measures now.”

PETA fieldworkers find dogs chained or penned without access to food, water, or shelter every day, and the most recent incidents are far from the first time they’ve discovered the bodies of dogs who starved, froze, or died of heat stroke or thirst. Last year, two Bertie County residents were arraigned on cruelty-to-animals charges arising from two separate incidents in which PETA workers discovered dead and dying dogs on their properties.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.