Hopefully I did the animals and AAS justice in the 20 minutes I had in my conversation with host Marge Adams. The original broadcast was Nov 14th.
Here is a snapshot of what I spoke about:

-City of Vancouver Charter and Dangerous Dog laws: by-laws exist but not always enforced, dogs deemed dangerous can be apprehended BEFORE they attack a person or animal.

-The risk to public safety that chained dogs or desocialized yard dogs pose and the fact that both the City of Vanc and the SPCA are aware of dangerous dogs yet do not act to prevent tragedies

- AAS research on neglected and abused dogs has been presented to City Council without any action taken by elected officials to improve the plight of these dogs and to decrease the risk to public safety despite a favourable response to our presentation from some councillors.

-AAS website has the Fall 2003 newsletter on-line, cruelty reports hotline, information on puppymills, information on legistation and bylaws

-Puppy mills are unlicensed backyard breeders not concerned with the welfare of animals. My apologies to Joann Bessler for forgetting her name at the wrong time to give her credit for compiling the puppymill database. I also spoke about the connection between puppy mills, pet stores and too many dogs not taken care of in society

-AAS does excellent rescue work and is volunteer run. AAS believes in animal rehabilitation no matter how long it takes and covers the costs of buying a dog from an owner, behaviour modification, vet/dental bills and foster care. The success stories are wonderful, but as a society we have to find solutions to preventing abuse and neglect in the first place.

-I reminded the listeners about COPE's election platform that it will not tolerate the neglect and mistreatment of animals. We should be asking Mayor Campbell what the City plans to do to accomplish this, in light of the fact that to date nothing has been done.