A recent animal cruelty case in Toledo has prompted a community discussion on the larger issue of tethered dogs in the city.

Michael Bivens, 26, and Valentina Slaughter, 30, of the 1300 block of Indiana Avenue, each face three misdemeanor charges of animal cruelty after an emaciated dog left outside on a chain died Nov. 22. Mr. Bivens is to appear in Toledo Municipal Court on Thursday, while Ms. Slaughter pleaded not guilty last week and will have a pretrial hearing Jan. 19.

Stephen Heaven, president and chief executive of the Toledo Area Humane Society, said the dog’s only form of shelter was nothing but a wire crate with a piece of cardboard on top.

The dog “was so skinny,” he said. “It had no body fat for warmth.”

The organization received a complaint about the dog through the Lucas County Pit Crew the night before. Jean Keating, executive director of the rescue, said a good Samaritan had contacted the group through Facebook. Volunteers went to the property that night, but could not see the dog and thought it perhaps had been taken inside.

“We can’t trespass and we can’t legally enforce anything, but we help where we can,” Ms. Keating said. “What we can do is offer our assistance to people. Sometimes owners will surrender a dog to us.”

By the time a cruelty investigator with the humane society visited the next morning, the dog had died. It had apparently been left out all night on its chain, Mr. Heaven said.

Ms. Keating said improper and cruel tethering of dogs in Toledo has been a problem for years, despite a city anti-tethering ordinance. Area animal lovers and rescuers discuss the topic frequently, she said, but little action has been taken.

“The death of that particular dog we were involved with was just the straw that broke the camel’s back,” she said.

The Pit Crew will host a community discussion Thursday from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at 855 N. McCord Rd. in Springfield Township.

Representatives from the humane society, the Toledo Police Department, and the Lucas County Canine Care & Control will be on hand to educate attendees on the laws, which agencies can enforce which laws, and what citizens should do when they encounter an animal in need. They will also answer questions and participate in discussion about tethering in general.

“Hopefully, this will ease a lot of people’s frustrations and offer solutions,” Ms. Keating said. “It’s very confusing as to who can do what, and there’s a misunderstanding that every time someone sees a tethered dog, it needs to be seized.”

Lt. Kevin Braun, who leads TPD’s community services section, said the department regularly fields calls about tethered dogs. Toledo’s anti-tethering ordinance prohibits any dog from being tethered for more than 30 minutes unless the owner is present in the yard. City police and the humane society have authority to enforce the code.

“I don’t know that it’s something we’ve enforced in terms of issuing citations, but I know we go out on these types of calls quite a bit,” Lieutenant Braun said. “Especially this time of year when the weather is cold and the animals aren’t being brought inside.”

Mr. Heaven said the humane society prefers to use state cruelty laws, which have much stronger penalties.

“The [city] ordinance has no teeth. There’s no provision to seize the dog,” he said. “To write a $25 ticket for that just doesn’t help us at all. If we went out and there was a dog tethered, we would write a notice [under state cruelty laws]. If they didn’t comply, then we would seize the dog.”

The organization did just that in another recent tethering case. T-Bone, seized in mid-November from the 900 block of Evesham Avenue, was very thin and on a heavy chain in the back yard — reported as possibly dead by a neighbor.

“They feared he was deceased because he wasn’t coming out of his dog house,” which didn’t have any straw or insulation against the cold, Mr. Heaven said. “He was just skin and bones. He’s really come a long way. He put on 12 pounds in no time at all.”

T-Bone has recently been adopted to a new family, and his former owner, 45-year-old Deji Lee, faces an animal cruelty charge in the Toledo court. He has pleaded not guilty and is to have a pretrial hearing Jan. 17.

While the county dog shelter cannot enforce cruelty or tethering laws, staff share information with the humane society and police, and can act as an assisting agency if needed.

“We get tethering complaints here and there and can go out and do a license check, but we don’t have the authority in the code to enforce it,” Director Richard Stewart said. “One of the things we’re going to start doing on those is we’ll have a pamphlet about tethering we can hand out and do some education when we do a license check.”

Lieutenant Braun said the community discussion Thursday should prove beneficial for everyone, and foster better communication and cooperation among the various agencies and the public.

“These meetings are a way to get everybody on the same page,” he said. “If any one of us could snap our fingers and eliminate the problem, we’d do it in a heartbeat. It’s going to be informative for everybody, I imagine.”

Contact Alexandra Mester amester@theblade.com, 419-724-6066, or on Twitter @AlexMesterBlade.

First Published December 13, 2017, 11:00 p.m.