SPCA money raising p.r.: "Bring dogs in from the cold" (Except for the sled dogs) *PIC*

Animal Advocates Watchdog

http://www.spca.bc.ca/news-and-events/news/bring-dogs-in-from-the-cold.html

November 24, 2010

Bring your dog inside.

That’s the plea from BC SPCA cruelty investigators after responding to dozens of calls across the province about dogs left outside in record-breaking frigid temperatures.

“It’s absolutely preposterous to leave a dog – particularly a short-haired breed like a pit bull – outside in this weather,” says senior animal protection officer Eileen Drever.

Drever says dogs who do not have adequate shelter can succumb to frostbite and hypothermia, and even die.

“For the love of your pet, don’t leave him outside in this weather,” Drever pleads.

Owners are required under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act to provide their pets with adequate food, water and shelter. Marcie Moriarty, the BC SPCA’s general manager of cruelty investigations, says the society has already seized dogs this week who were being kept outside without proper shelter.

AAS comment: But not the Whistler sled dogs who the SPCA had known for years were kept outside without proper shelter.

“People tend to think that because a dog has fur, or is used to living outside, he’ll be OK, but that’s a fatal assumption and it could cost your dog his life.”

One of the most tragic cases in recent memory involved a cruelty investigation in Prince George where three dogs were being kept outside in sub-zero temperatures. Investigators arrived to find one of the dogs already dead in his outdoor kennel. A second dog was found huddled in a barren dog house suffering from a bladder infection because she wouldn’t leave the dog house to urinate.

Drever recalls another case in Maple Ridge a few years ago in which a Dalmatian that was kept outside froze to the ground and couldn’t get up.

AAS comment: We remember the Dalmatian in Surrey that the SPCA let freeze to death in its doghouse, and we remember Finnegan in Maple Ridge who the SPCA would have let die frozen to the ground if rescuers hadn't saved him (http://www.animaladvocates.com/videos/finnegan/), but we don't remember a Dalmatian in Maple Ridge.

“These cases were so tragic and so preventable,” says Drever.

AAS comment: The far greater tragedy of the slaughter of one hundred sled dogs was preventable too, but the SPCA chose not to prevent it.

The BC SPCA opposes keeping dogs exclusively outdoors, and last year launched a campaign called “Break the Chains of Suffering” aimed at educating guardians about back yard dogs. Dogs who are kept outside all the time – no matter what the weather – can suffer physical and psychological harm.

AAS comment: Yet the SPCA did not educate sled dog owners.

“At the very minimum under the law, you must make sure your dog has adequate food, water and shelter,” says Drever.