In Memory (2003)

"IT'S TIME!" The AAS Yard Dog Report

In memory of yard dogs who never made it to freedom and happiness

"Lakey"

He endured five years on a chain. Last week he somehow escaped his physical, mental, and emotional shackles and raced for freedom, into the stream of traffic that he had watched and heard so many lonely, dispiriting days and nights. He had about 2 minutes of freedom.

There have been several other dogs chained at this location for quite a few years. Every dog was reported to the SPCA over and over, and also to the city where they lived. When nothing was done, women put their lives on the line and removed the dogs and rehomed them, according to reports.

But this dog may be part Pit Bull and that made rescuers afraid to get too close. There was the problem of who would adopt it if it was aggressive. And so no one came for him.

He would have been luckier to be a dog in Mexico or one of the countries that North American dog-lovers feel so superior too, where he would have had the freedom to roam and to a large degree, choose his life. What is the point of our society demanding food, water, and shelter, if that is all a dog has for its whole life?

The Lower Mainland city this dog was cruelly ignored by prides itself on being highly civilized. yet it has done nothing to make it illegal to keep dogs chained, penned, in garages, on decks, and in yards, 24/7.

In memory of the dog we call "Lakey" and all the other dogs that endure worse than third-world lives, AAS will keep telling their stories and keep asking municipal mayors and councils to ban the keeping of yard dogs.

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