FALLBROOK — On July 7, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Lanya Bailey-Harrell of Fallbrook chained herself to a doghouse at Fallbrook Fertilizer Feed & Farm Supply to bring awareness to perpetually chained canines.

Bailey-Harrell participated in the annual "Chain Off" organized by the nonprofit Dogs Deserve Better. The organization has held this event around the July 4 holiday for the last five years in order to raise awareness about a practice that is still widely accepted but increasingly recognized as one of the worst forms of abuse to which a dog can be subjected: keeping it chained or penned for its entire life.

"Living chained to a doghouse will be grueling and unimaginable for those of us who are so used to coming and going as we please," said Susan Hartland, organizer of the Atlanta and Seattle events and a Dogs Deserve Better area representative. "But the discomfort we will endure is nothing compared to the daily suffering of many of our nation’s dogs who spend their entire lives at the end of a chain, living in a small patch of mud, their chains wrapped around a tree, baking in the summer sun or freezing in the winter cold."

Last year, California became the first state to pass a law limiting the amount of time a dog may be tethered to a stationary object.