Chilliwack Progress
Rescued dogs need new homes

The BC SPCA is looking for a permanent home for a local, female Akita-Shepherd cross who survived great suffering after an encounter with a porcupine.

Six-year-old Spud was brought to the Chilliwack shelter on Hopedale Road Friday.

"She was taken immediately to a veterinarian who removed 980 quills from her face and body," says SPCA senior animal protecting officer, Eileen Drever. "Three hundred of those quills had punctured the inside of her mouth."

Comment: Spud was taken to Valley Veterinary Clinic by a son-in-law after the Chilliwack SPCA refused to help unless Spud was surrendered to the SPCA. The family member who brought Spud to the SPCA was the family's son-in-law, not Spud's owner, and so legally not allowed to surrender Spud. He explained he was not Spud's owner, nevertheless, he was given the option of misrepresenting himself as Spud's owner to get her help or being sent away. In front of a witness, he said he was Spud's owner to get her the help that would otherwise be denied. Then the SPCA told him to drive Spud to Valley View Vet.

Dr. Mark Steinbach's written report concluded that "not seeking medical aid" for the animal "was cruel and abusive." By studying the wounds, he estimates Spud must have fought with the porcupine at least two days earlier - likely on or about May 12.

Comment: Spud, Junior and Peanut Butter went missing somewhere on the family's acreage May 12th. This is not unusual - they are three of the few lucky dogs who get to roam to their heart's content and come home to a bed and a good meal. The family searched for the dogs but finding them was hopeless. Peanut Butter and Junior came home in the afternoon of the 13th with a few quills in them and the family removed many of them. At 6:00 am the family found Spud. They immediately began looking for financial help for her, phoning friends, SPCA's, and vets. They were given estimates as high as $900 and not one of many vets they phoned would allow them to pay in instalments, all demanding payment in full. One of the dogs had been attacked by a porcupine in the past and the family took it to a vet and paid for treatment, but they were in between paycheques and didn't have any ready money. They also had the two females spayed and had paid for other vet treatment over the years. Take a look at the photos of these dogs to see how fat and happy they are.

"Spud was suffering from severe pain, infection and abscesses, as well as dehydration and hyperthermia because of her inability to drink liquids or to pant to cool her body," Ms. Drever says.

Comment: The SPCA accuses this family of cruel indifference by saying that the quills had been in the dogs at least 30 hours. They cannot know exactly when the attack happened, and we question that. The dogs would have come home sometime soon after being attacked and that was on May 13, the same day the SPCA took Spud away from her family, which the family permitted under threat of criminal charges and to get them the help that they could not give them, at that time.

We question the infection and abscesses too. Quills probably cause inflammation, but it would take days for infection to set in and even longer for abscesses.

Shortly after Spud came to the SPCA, shelter workers visited her owner and persuaded him to sign over two more dogs that also had porcupine quills imbedded in them. They were treated at the SPCA hospital in Vancouver and no exact number of the quills removed available.

Comment: Of course not, as the family had removed most of them by themselves.

One is a two-year-old female Shepherd cross named Peanut. The other is a nine-year-old, male, lab-Shepherd cross named Junior. Junior was to be neutered by the SPCA.

Spud may require further treatment in case of infection. Peanut and Junior are fine.

"There's no way the owner will get these dogs back," says Ms Drever. "So we want to find them each a permanent home where they can be an only pet as they are not good with cats."

Would-be adoptors of any of the dogs are invited to make application by calling the SPCA at 1-604-879-7721.

"Spud is a wonderfully good-natured dog," notes Ms. Drever. "And, amazingly, she's still trusting of people."

Comment: Drever's statement that Spud is still trusting of people implies that Spud was an abused dog and is an unwarranted slur on this family. She trusts people because of the kindness, love and attention she received in her home.

The BC SPCA hopes to present to Crown counsel, a charge of cruelty to animals against the dogs' owner in the near future.

Comment: This board recounts many cases of real abuse and neglect where the SPCA has taken no action. Why is the SPCA targeting this family? They are timid Natives and have never had anything like the horror of what the SPCA is doing to them in their lives before. They have been vilified in the papers, on the SPCA web site, and on TV. They tried their hardest to get Spud the help she needed and in the end, surrendered her to the Chilliwack SPCA because the SPCA would do nothing for Spud until they did. For that they are going to be dragged through court, fined, punished and made criminals of.

This is Peanut Butter. Does she look like an abused or neglected dog?