With a crew from Animal Planet roaming the chamber, Miami-Dade County commissioners put on a show before finally passing the county's first dog-tethering law.

From now on, it's illegal to tie a dog to any standing object outside a home unless the dog's owner is present. Commissioners voted 11-1, with Commissioner Barbara Jordan voting against, and Dennis Moss absent.

The lengthy discussion prior to the vote shot back and forth across the dais with all the commissioners claiming to be dog lovers, but not all willing to agree with the premise of the ordinance proposed by Commissioner Jose ''Pepe'' Diaz.

Commissioner Audrey Edmonson told of a wonderful Rottweiler she once owned that would jump the fence each time she let him out back of her home. Edmonson said she wasn't the type of person to walk a dog.

''I had to get rid of the dog,'' she said.

Commissioner Katy Sorenson's response: ``Anyone who owns a pet has to have some sense of responsibility toward the pet. Maybe ownership isn't for everyone.''

Diaz brought the ordinance back from an earlier stalled attempt to pass a similar law when commissioners enacted a series of dog-licensing rules in January.

In attendance and in support of the ordinance was Sara Pizano, county animal services director. Pizano, who cited studies that show tethered dogs are 2.8 times more likely to bite, said tethering a dog does not create ``a good quality of life.''

The ordinance allows a six-month window during which only warnings will be handed out to those who break the law. Then Pizano is expected to bring back a report on its effectiveness and whether adoption rates from county animal shelters had decreased.

That was the concern of Jordan, who also noted that some families cannot afford to build fences. She called the ordinance ``discriminatory.''

``I resent the implication that says if you can't afford it, or can't have a dog without tethering it, you shouldn't have one at all.''

Commission Chairman Bruno Barreiro said he thought it was fine to tether a dog -- but only for a certain length of time -- say, two or three hours.

Responded Commissioner Carlos Gimenez, who noted he has a big dog, and had to place spikes in the ground and upgrade his fencing to keep his dog in the yard: ``I do believe tethering is cruel.''

Commissioner Joe Martinez said he was worried the county would turn the tethering law into a money-making scheme, so he successfully lobbied to keep all the fines paid by violators out of the county's general fund.

After the six-month education period, the first offense will carry a warning, a second offense will cost $100, and each additional offense will cost $500. Seventy-five percent of the fine money will go into an Animal Services Department trust fund to be used to care for animals at the county pound and to help run the day-to-day operations of the department. The remaining 25 percent will go to the general fund.

Dog-tethering has become an issue across the nation in recent years. Representatives of Animal Planet, a cable television network, said they did not know when they might telecast the commission's debate.

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