With overnight temperatures expected to drop back below freezing in the upcoming week and because the city’s three-hour limit on tethering dogs is reportedly not being enforced—leaving many dogs chained outdoors 24 hours a day—PETA has rushed a code blue alert to the Motor City, courtesy of two sky-high appeals urging everyone to unchain their dogs and bring them inside.

“Dogs left outside when temperatures plummet suffer every moment in the cold and could easily die from exposure, so they must be brought inside right away,” says PETA Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch. “While the Detroit City Council has made an effort to help dogs, they are still being kept chained outdoors 24/7, and PETA encourages city leaders to ban unattended tethering altogether.”

PETA points out that the current three-hour tethering limit is nearly impossible to enforce. Other communities that initially passed tethering time limits, including Newport News and Portsmouth, Virginia, later revisited the issue and prohibited the practice altogether.

PETA also notes that chained dogs are typically deprived of adequate food, water, and veterinary care—and that their emotional and social needs are completely ignored. Many are denied adequate shelter and have only an overturned trash bin or plastic barrel—or nothing at all—to shield them from the elements. Studies show that continuous chaining also makes dogs aggressive.

PETA’s billboards are located near the intersection of S. Wayne Road and June Avenue in Westland and at 17706 Plymouth Rd. in Detroit.

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 the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.