Animal Advocates Society of BC
www.animaladvocates.com

January 26 2004

Chief Constable Jamie Graham,
Vancouver Police Department,
2120 Cambie Street,
Vancouver BC V5Z 4N6

Re: The shooting of the dog Tommy at 7841 Windsor Street, Vancouver: January 22/04

Dear Chief Constable Graham,

Animal Advocates Society of BC has been urging the City of Vancouver to prohibit the keeping of yard dogs beginning in 2001 when we presented the City with our report, �IT�S TIME!� Included in this report are many photo-stories of yard dogs and the expert opinion and research that prove that yard dogs not only suffer lives of distress (an offence under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act) but are a danger to the public, especially to children. If you would like a copy of all the dog bite statistics, we would be happy to supply it.

The City chose at that time to tell the BC SPCA to use its powers under the Act to �do something�. The SPCA agreed and said it would begin a program of education. In the subsequent two and a half years, not even a brochure in English has been made available at any SPCA branch, and to the best of our ability to know, no dog has been seized.

The shooting of Tommy was inevitable, just as was the attack on Shenica White in December 2002. As more people use dogs as guards, more shootings and more maulings, even a death, probably of a child, are also inevitable.

We are in sympathy with the police officer who we believe was justified in his or her actions. Guard dogs are meant to frighten and attack and in the dark it was not possible to read Tommy�s body language. We are not in sympathy with the adult Bains who chained Tommy.

But we regret that the Vancouver Police Department itself has counseled home-owners to get a guard dog.

In the end, there is only one victim, as always, the weakest member of our society, in this case, the dog.

We ask two things of you: to tell your officers to stop telling people to get a guard dog and to urge the City to adopt legislation prohibiting the keeping of yard dogs.

Our report is online at http://www.animaladvocates.com/ItsTime.htm. We would be pleased to send you a copy. We attach the four points we asked the City to consider.

Sincerely,

Judith Stone,
President, Animal Advocates Society of BC
animaladvocates@telus.net

cc: Mayor Campbell and Council

Attachments: �IT�S TIME!� overview

Selected AAS messageboard posts

�IT�S TIME!� OVERVIEW
� After years of witnessing and documenting inhumane treatment of dogs in Vancouver and other municipalities in British Columbia;
� After many requests to the City of Vancouver by Animal Advocates Society and its supporters asking the city to adopt bylaws to define and improve the physical conditions in which Vancouver�s dogs are to be kept;
� After successfully having eleven other municipalities in the lower mainland adopt these definitions and improvements, called �Humane Treatment of Dogs� bylaws, Animal Advocates Society is asking the City of Vancouver to adopt a form of these existing municipal by-laws; and to incorporate the following improvements to ensure humane care for dogs:
1. No tethering: AAS feels that it is important for dogs to not be tethered at all. People who chain or tie up their dogs in their own yard do it on a regular basis as a way of controlling/ignoring their dog. Dogs can easily get accidentally entangled in their tether or are unable to escape a frightening situation. AAS is not asking for a by-law to prohibit casual tethering, for example while a person is in a store or temporarily for the dog�s safety.
2. Garage/shed dogs: Some dogs in Vancouver live their entire lives in a garage or shed. They are usually also tethered or sometimes caged in the garage or shed to keep them from damaging the car or tools they are protecting by their barking. Although these dogs have shelter, they still suffer from a lack of a minimum standard of care because they are shut out from their �family/pack�, often have no sanitary place to sleep and often lack proper veterinary care. Their plight is perhaps the saddest of all. Their lives are often spent not only with no company or stimulation, but almost entirely in the dark. Therefore, AAS believes that it is important for the bylaw enforcer to have access to garages and sheds if there is reason to believe that a dog lives there for a substantial part of its life.
3. Pen Size: Sometimes dogs are penned outside while the owner is at work. AAS does not believe it is acceptable for dogs to be left in pens all day where they still suffer from the isolation that makes them anti-social and which pens are almost invariably dirty with feces. But we don�t expect at this time to ban penning and so we ask for humane guidelines for this. AAS would like to see a by-law that states than a pen must be at least 200 square feet and that the length of time a dog can be isolated in a pen be limited
4. Muzzling: Dogs whine and bark when they are lonely and are neglected by the humans they count on to take care of them. Muzzling a dog to prevent it from making its needs be heard is inhumane and barbaric. Muzzling a dog has the same effect as chaining. It is an irresponsible way to control a dog's natural behaviours instead of appropriate human interaction and socialization training. It's the lack of responsible pet care that forces a dog to whine and bark incessantly.

Animals' News Room

Who pays the price for the City and the SPCA doing nothing to stop the cruelty and danger of yard dogs?
http://www.animaladvocates.com/cgi-bin/newsroom.pl/read/4362
The Vancouver police tell people to get a guard dog. The City won't adopt a law to prevent criminals and frightened hone-owners from cruelly turning an innocent pup into a danger to its citizens. But the taxpayers pay to kill the ruined dogs through the City Pound and now the police. The BC SPCA says, over and over, that it is doing something for yard dogs, but it isn't. And it kills them too.
No one is doing anything except AAS and we are sickened by all the cruelty we see and fed up with the financial burden of paying to rehabilitate as many as we can rescue. The SPCA with its 20 million dollar budget and the City with its even bigger budget won't spend a penny to stop the ruin of hundreds of backyard dogs. Not even after a child pays the ultimate price of the horror of an attack by two powerful frenzied dogs and the loss of her face.
Who is paying, who is being a weasel? Shenica White paid dearly; dogs pay in a life of cruel isolation; AAS pays to save as many as it can; and the City pays nothing, except the cost to kill the dog.
AAS may very well have been asked to rescue this dog, we are asked all the time. In fact we may have photos of this dog. We may have been trying to find a way to save it. We are haunted by all the dogs we cannot save and very angry that we and so many other private citizens are risking life and limb to do what the fat-cats at the City and the SPCA are not doing.
(Read "Women Who Steal Dogs" posts in our WebMag http://animaladvocates.com/women-who-steal-dogs-2.htm and many more posts on this board by scrolling down. There also many posts that link to our documented reports on yard dogs and there is our Report on Yard Dogs, "IT'S TIME!" at http://animaladvocates.com/ItsTime.htm )

Animals' News Room

The media are prone to spin an issue for the flavour of the month, and this month it is "Police Brutality" Month. Will it ever be "Unchain Dogs" Month? http://www.animaladvocates.com/cgi-bin/newsroom.pl/read/4425
Where are the letters to the Province newspaper from all the people who we know wrote to say how wrong it is to chain a dog?
The real story is first, that the VPD itself tells people to get a guard dog. Second that the City and the SPCA will not prevent this treatment of dogs that makes them dangerous and gets them killed, in this case by the police, but also by the City pound. In either case City taxpayers pay to kill dogs that had no choice in how their lives were lived, who suffer and die, and who sometimes get free at last and attack someone, usually a child.
In Tommy's memory, and in the memory of all dogs that live and die on chains, AAS is not going to stop its fight to make the City and the SPCA prevent this cruelty and danger to children.
In memory of Tommy and all the other dogs who die on their chains, AAS is going to keep fighting people like Bains , Vancouver City , and the SPCA *PIC*

Animals' News Room

In memory of Tommy and all the other dogs who die on their chains, AAS is going to keep fighting people like Bains , Vancouver City , and the SPCA http://www.animaladvocates.com/cgi-bin/newsroom.pl/read/4370
This is a picture taken when "Tommy" was a gentle, submissive pup. AAS sees this all the time, an innocent pup who is treated well for a few weeks or a few months, and then spends the rest of its life chained.
What do the neighbours say about Tommy's life? The Vancouver City police should speak to the neighbours to see if in fact they shot a "loved family pet", or if they were confronted in the dark by a psychologically ruined and dangerous dog.
The stats are unequivocal...it is these dogs that maim and kill. Mr Bains is lucky that Tommy didn't crack and kill one of his children.
In memory of Tommy and all the other dogs who die on their chains, AAS is going to keep fighting people like the Bains and the City of Vancouver, and the BC SPCA.