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SPCA TAKES
HEALTHY HAPPY DOGS FROM NATIVE FAMILY AND EXPLOITS THEM IN THE MEDIA
SPCA press release
about "Spud" the "porcupine quills" dog
Posted By:
AAS
Date: Friday, 21 May 2004, at 9:28 a.m.
May 19, 2004. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE. The BC SPCA
is seeking a loving foster home for a beautiful female
Akita-Shepherd cross who survived a terrible ordeal after a run-in
with a porcupine near Chilliwack. The SPCA rushed the dog to a
veterinarian, where 980 quills were removed from her face and body,
including 300 quills puncturing the inside of her mouth. The dog's
owner had refused to take her to a veterinarian for several days and
when a family member finally brought her to the Chilliwack SPCA she
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.
"Spud" has a gentle and loving nature and has captured the hearts
of staff at the SPCA Hospital in Vancouver, where she is slowing
recovering from her injuries. She is no longer on morphine and is
continuing to respond to antibiotics. While she is now attempting to
eat pureed food, she is still in a lot of pain and will need
on-going care and attention as she heals.
The SPCA is seeking a loving home where Spud can continue her
convalescence in a quiet and nurturing environment. If you can help,
please contact Eileen Drever, Senior Animal Protection Officer, at
604.709.4670.
Two other dogs owned by the family also received minor injuries
from the porcupine. The SPCA convinced the family to surrender the
dogs and brought them for treatment at the SPCA Hospital, where they
are both resting comfortably.
Spud and the two other dogs surrendered by the owner are available
to media for photos or videotaping.
Further information:
Eileen Drever, Senior Animal Protection Officer, BC SPCA:
604-709-4670;
Lorie Chortyk, Community Relations Manager, BC SPCA:
(604) 647-1316, 1-800-665-1868, or 830-7179 (cell);
Chilliwack Progress article: SPCA pleads for foster homes
AAS -- Friday, 21 May 2004, at 9:51 a.m.
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"We don't euthanize for space" disproved
Gail Moerkerken -- Friday, 21 May 2004, at 6:53 p.m.
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Unlimited surrender is corrupting, not noble, and means one
HAS to kill for space.
Jennifer Dickson -- Saturday, 22 May 2004, at 10:45 p.m.
"Spud" the Porcupine Quill Dog: The SPCA Makes
Monsters Out of Spud's Family But There is Another Side to This Story
*PIC*
Posted By: AAS
Date: Thursday, 27 May 2004, at 10:49 a.m.
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?
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Here is Junior *NM* *PIC*
AAS -- Thursday, 27 May 2004, at 1:30 p.m.
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Compare these two: The Chilliwack SPCA got $12,000 and a puppymiller
got her dogs back *LINK*
AAS -- Thursday, 27 May 2004, at 2:27 p.m.
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Is this the kind of "relationship building" with First Nations that
the SPCA was given grant money for?
Emma Vandewetering -- Thursday, 27 May 2004, at 2:09 p.m.
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Silvia Rutledge Paid and Got Her Animals Back - Can the SPCA Be
Bought? *LINK* *PIC*
AAS -- Thursday, 27 May 2004, at 5:45 p.m.
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Update on Peanut and Junior
Emma Vandewetering -- Monday, 31 May 2004, at 9:37 a.m.
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The story I saw on TV was not just biased but wrong and false!
Hiroko Nakagawa -- Thursday, 3 June 2004, at 6:54 a.m.
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Family called the SPCA for help and was denied!
Chilliwack K9Rescue -- Thursday, 3 June 2004, at 3:13 p.m.
Will charges against the family
of the "Porcupine Dogs" be laid? Where is the SPCA manager who
stick-handled the best p.r. grab of the month?
Posted By: AAS
Date: Friday, 11 June 2004, at 6:18 a.m.
Will threatened charges against the family of the "Porcupine
Dogs" be laid? Where is the SPCA manager who stick-handled the
best p.r. grab of the month?
The SPCA has posted a job opening for the manager of the
Abbotsford and Chilliwack SPCAs which until very recently were
jointly managed by long-time employee Joanne Halligan. Halligan is
the SPCA employee who opportunistically took a family's loved but
injured dogs away from them after refusing the family's pleas for
financial help, probably making a bundle for the SPCA.
This is one of an increasing number of unethical, anti-animal,
but brilliant and money-generating p.r. stunts, that are part of
the "vision" of the new CEO who was hired to ramp up donations by
making media-grabbing seizures at the same time defusing the
negative p.r. of AAS's web site which exposed the SPCA for decades
of its own anti-animal cruelty and for ignoring generations of
animal cruelty. Read the story of how the SPCA was cruel to the
Porcupine Dogs by taking them from their family, putting them in
cells, and then selling them to strangers who may or may not treat
them well for the rest of their lives, no one will ever know as
the SPCA does not follow up on its sales.
http://www.animaladvocates.com/Watchdog/PorcupineDogs.htm.
Notice the SPCA's press release says
" Spud and the two other dogs surrendered by
the owner are available to media for photos or videotaping."
Did Halligan get her reward for this by being promoted to the
position of Senior Animal Protection Officer? Or was she demoted
for fumbling the ball and letting a credible person witness her
telling the son-in-law of Spud's owners to lie and say he owned
Spud, so that Spud could be surrendered to the SPCA - the only way
the family had left to get her the medical attention she quickly
needed. Halligan's own staff had callously refused pleas from the
family for medical help, even though the family offered to pay
soon and has a record of paying their vet bills. The SPCA's
callousness forced the family to surrender Spud and then the SPCA
turned on them and threatened to lay charges of cruelty if the
timid and uneducated family didn't surrender the other two dogs,
who were not in distress.
The SPCA then made a "Poster Pet" of all three dogs, milking
the story for all it was worth, while imposing cruelty of both the
dogs and the family. You can see that all three dogs are fat and
happy at
http://www.animaladvocates.com/Watchdog/PorcupineDogs.htm.
Our money is on the promotion. We bet that Halligan is one of
Daniell's Darlings - the women who best epitomize Daniell's
standards of ruthlessness.
Looks like we put our money on the wrong horse....
The SPCA manager who
mishandled the Porcupine Dogs incident is gone
Posted By: AAS
Date: Tuesday, 15 June 2004, at 5:27 a.m.
SPCA Says Goodbye to Joanne Halligan.
The Society is saying farewell in July to a wonderful and
dedicated employee – Joanne Halligan, Branch Manager for
Abbotsford/Langley and Chilliwack. Joanne, a longtime employee,
has worked in a number of different capacities in the Lower
Mainland and has shown an extraordinary commitment to animal
welfare. She is now moving on to new opportunities and we wish
her all the best for her future.
Possibly thanks to Kelly
Cook being unafraid to do the right thing
Posted By: AAS
Date: Tuesday, 15 June 2004, at 5:32 a.m.
In Response To:
The SPCA manager who mishandled the Porcupine Dogs incident is
gone (AAS)
We can't help but wonder if the bad press over the
porcupine dogs had anything to do with Halligan quitting or
being fired. Halligan badly blew it when she got the
son-in-law to lie right in front of Kelly Cook.
Also, the dogs were clearly fat and happy. And it was her
staff who refused any help when the family begged as fast as
they could----not any bloody 30 hours later as the SPCA said.
Possibly thanks to Kelly Cook being unafraid to do the
right thing, Halligan is gone, but the family will never
recover from their nightmare and who knows what will become of
the dogs who were happy and loved where they were and now are
with strangers who may pass them on to who knows where? If we
were the family we would sue the SPCA to get them back.
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