On July 2nd AAS wrote to the BC SPCA Director for the Peace River and to BC SPCA President of the Board, Rick Sargent, and to CEO Craig Daniell, asking if the announcement made by the Peace River Branch, that the SPCA will be looking at tethered dogs as a neglect and cruelty situation (See news item below) means that the SPCA intends to actually address this problem. We have not received a reply.
The announcement is welcomed by AAS even though it is somewhat dishonoured, coming as it does only after an attack by a desocialized guard dog on an SPCA employee, not after many other attacks, mostly on children, not even after the attack on Shenica White. The SPCA gives the appearance of only caring about itself, not children at risk and not suffering dogs.
We wish that this policy, if in fact it is policy, would start with all the suffering dogs in the Lower Mainland (mostly Vancouver) that AAS has been fighting for so long for.
We have reported so many of them, but the response by the SPCA has not resulted in any better outcome for the dogs as in the past.
All these reports are here: the first 39 reports http://www.animaladvocates.com/ItsTIME-cruelty-reports.htm
reports 40-50 http://www.animaladvocates.com/Cruelty-reports40-50.htm
reports 51-60 http://www.animaladvocates.com/cruelty-reports51-60.htm
We continue to encounter a frustrating lack of comprehension of a dog's simple social needs from the SPCA, for example, being asked what is wrong with keeping a dog in a garage for as long as eight hours, if it has toys and there is light. That is bad enough but it is not what we were expressing concern over. We were expressing concern over the keeping of dogs 24/7 in garages, sometimes in cages in the garages to prevent the dog from scratching the car. We did not get an answer and it is of concern that an SPCA employee, charged with preventing cruelty, would not understand how distressing it is to a dog (or any animal) to be kept in the conditions of a garage, but especially to an animal with such high social needs.
That is just one of many frustrations we've encountered when trying to get the SPCA to take some action on dogs neglected by chaining, tethering, penning, garaging, etc. In fact, since most of the dogs AAS has reported to the SPCA have food, water, and shelter, and aren't being beaten, the problem of social/psychological suffering is what needs to be addressed by the SPCA.
As far as we know, no social/psychological neglect has been alleviated or prevented for even one of the dogs in our reports, but we must add that the SPCA has a dismal history of follow-through and communication and unless we are aggravatingly insistent, complaints are allowed to fizzle out and we are left with essentially no real information that would help to put our mind at ease and make us feel more trust in the SPCA.
This needn't be. Nothing would make us happier than to be redundant. If and when the SPCA takes immediate and proactive steps at our first report of a neglected dog, we will happily be out of a job.
We hope the SPCA will tell us that this initiative in Dawson Creek is a trial run so to speak and that we can soon expect the same announcement for the rest of the province, especially the Lower Mainland.
Judy Stone, President,
Animal Advocates Society of BC
Don't tether that dog, says SPCA
By Jamie Dirom
dawsoncreek
Friday, June 27, 2003
Imagine how it would feel to live most of your life tethered in a single location.
While such treatment would be considered unconscionable for people, that's exactly the life many dogs live.
The local SPCA is working to fight the tethering of dogs, which can not only put dogs at risk, but also result in severe psychological damage.
"Tethering is not acceptable as a form of confinement for your dog," said shelter manager Becky Cryne. "The big problem with tethering is that the dog can't express normal behaviour.
"We will be looking at (tethered dogs as) a neglect and cruelty situation," she said.
Dogs that are tethered often are without access to shelter or human companionship. And since dogs, like all animals respond to perceived threats in a "flight or fight" manner, they will have no choice to resort to aggression when they feel threatened.
As a result, tethered dogs tend to become more aggressive and are more likely to bite than dogs that don't spend their days tethered.
Cryne said people will often get a dog and if it develops behavioural problems, their solution will be to tie it up. But that can result in worsening of behaviour issues.
"The real solution is proper training and socialization from day one of acquiring a pet," she said.
The B.C. SPCA's animal care guidelines say tethering is unacceptable as a permanent method for preventing a dog to roam outside ? acceptable methods include fencing or providing an outdoor run for the dog.
Tethering is acceptable as a temporary method of confinement when the dog may cause injury to itself or another, or while the construction of fencing or a holding pen is underway.