Creator of comic strip 'Mutts' frees his Guard Dog character after decades

Fans of Guard Dog would regularly plead with McDonnell to free the mutt but the artist was also lobbied by animal welfare groups to keep the dog chained as a way to increase the spotlight on the issue. Photo: AP

Something is different on the comics pages this week. In the panels of Mutts, there's the long-delayed sight of freedom.

Patrick McDonnell, the cartoonist who draws the popular strip, is freeing his character Guard Dog, liberating an animal who has become for decades a symbol of the cruelty of dog chaining.