I was horrified to read in the Kelowna Daily Courier, August 29, 2002, that "Several dogs seized from a Beaverdell breeder last month will be euthanized by the SPCA". And the reason given by assistant manager Kathy Woodward: "they are so traumatized they may never adapt to the human world". This is the most utterly ridiculous thing I've read in ages.
If my experience of the human world was being taken from familiar surroundings and stuffed into a concrete cell, surrounded by lots of other equally confused and terrified members of my own species, I'd be traumatized too.
To be fair, I'll cut you guys some slack if you're willing to do the same for these poor dogs- I think it's great that you went in and finally seized them. But how dare you just decide to kill them without giving them a chance? What is the point? It would have been kinder to just enter Gaston Lapointe's propery and euthanize them all. I know, legalities- you must hold them until he is prosecuted.
The point is, dogs who have suffered desocialization like this often take years to rehabilitate. Many will always be terrified by noise, sirens, thunderstorms, as this article says these dogs are. But is that any reason to kill a dog? There are lots of dogs out there who have been raised since pups in good homes who are terrified of loud noises. Their owners don't kill them because of it.
I don't understand why the SPCA even seized these dogs in the first place if they're not willing to stick it out and give them every opportunity to live a good life. Every opportunity does NOT mean killing them before they even have a chance to leave the shelter and have a shot at a normal home environment. Killing them without giving them a real chance is the ultimate betrayal.
If this is the strategy taken with seized dogs, then leave them where they were. Concentrate instead on lobbying on bylaw improvements that would disallow Gaston Lapointe and so many others like him from even keeping dogs under such conditions in the first place.
Why is the SPCA always making glorified media swoops on the odd puppy mill or neglectful farmer instead of lobbying for changes in the laws to prevent any of this abuse from
happening in the first place?
I find this so called "New Direction" very difficult to understand. So far, it seems like the same old direction, just with new people and lots of catchphrases like "moving forward".
Last month the Vernon SPCA held a fundraiser in front of, and with the support of, a pet shop that has sold puppy mill pups for more than 12 years. Vernon SPCA has been to the mills that supply this shop. They always moan that there's nothing they can do, food, water, shelter, blah blah blah...So instead of lobbying to create laws to put these mills out of business, they decide to start sleeping with the enemy and hold mutual fundraising events? This event was heavily advertised. I was present the day it was held. The SPCA was out front, collecting donations and the line up at the cash register of that pet shop was 7 people deep, people all spending their money. There were puppies for sale in the pet shop window that day too. Now would you consider that a conflict of interest?
I hope you will think about these issues and give them some serious discussion at the upcoming board meeting. A lot needs to be done when it comes to animal welfare work, and I'm still waiting to see any initiative on the SPCA's part. So far, the SPCA is about to euthanize innocent dogs for being afraid of thunder, is holding fundraisers outside pet shops that profit from cruel puppy mills,has done nothing to help legislate control of breeding bylaws to shut down these mills, has done nothing to help legislate humane treatement of dogs bylaws to diminish the numbers of desocialized dogs it kills every year because humans have been allowed to get away with chaining, penning, and isolating them in every imagineable way until they become unsaveable. The SPCA has done nothing to legislate against the treatment of living creatures as merchandise by pet stores. It holds fundraisers in conjunction with these pet stores instead. What is wrong here? Do you think no one is watching? Do you think no one puts two and two together?
And do you think no one knows that SPCA staff breed animals? Do you think no one knows that some of them also crop ears? I thought this type of behaviour was against SPCA policy. Are you for spay and neuter and prevention of cruelty or are you for breeding and mutilation? If it's the former, then you have a few pink slips to hand out.
I really hope these are all topics that will be thoroughly covered at the upcoming meeting. These are things the public is concerned about. The public are your donors- don't lie to them or patronize them.
And as for donations- stealing the credit from PAWS for the Creston husky seizure was really low. Notice though that those dogs are being rehomed, not killed. I'll bet a lot of them are afraid of thunder. Jennifer Dickson