Legacy left to the dogs?

Don Denton/saanich News
Graeme McCreath gets help getting around from his guide dog Kimo.
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By Sheila Potter
Saanich News
When a Saanich woman left a generous legacy worth at least $300,000 to the Canadian Institute for the Blind, it should have meant good publicity for the non-profit society. But a controversy over how the gift is being spent is leaving Janet Hanevelt, the executive director of the CNIB BC-Yukon Division, answering some awkward questions.
Graeme McCreath is blind and lives in Royal Oak. He is mad that the CNIB may not live up to what he sees as the spirit of Hyacinth Margaret Mellish's will. Mellish passed away in 1997, leaving a large part of her property on Elk Lake Drive for the CNIB to use to train guide dogs.
The land where Mellish bred and trained dogs at her Heatherbell Kennels is vacant, though that will change as Saanich council approved a development two weeks ago. A condominium, town houses and 10 homes will be built on the land.
In 2004, the 4.9-acre property was valued at $479,000 by the B.C. Assessment Authority.
In her will, Mellish asked her trustees to sell the property and give two thirds of the proceeds to the CNIB to "establish a fund to be used to provide financial assistance to blind persons in British Columbia requiring a seeing-eye dog."
"We are privileged and honoured to receive a gift of this kind," said Hanevelt.
The money has not been released to the CNIB yet, and Hanevelt said they are still deciding how to use it. The possibility has been raised that the money will go to the CNIB's orientation mobility training for people who are blind or visually impaired. This program teaches people the skills to use a white cane to travel around town independently.
However, McCreath is concerned spending Mellish's donation on that program will mean her money does not go to train dogs - something the CNIB does not do.
McCreath has had a guide dog for years. His latest, Kimo, was trained by BC Guide Dogs, a new agency struggling for funds.
When he learned about Mellish's generous gift he felt that Mellish, a dog lover, was probably under the mistaken impression that CNIB trains dogs when she willed the money to them.
McCreath accuses the CNIB of cashing-in on money from people who are sympathetic to dogs.
"They don't have anything to do with (dogs) and they shouldn't imply that they do," said McCreath.
McCreath contacted Mellish's friend Margaret Robertson, who re-confirmed the notion that Mellish meant for the money to go specifically to train dogs. Both McCreath and Robertson have written the CNIB telling them of their concerns.
"During the years of our friendship it was abundantly clear that Mrs. Mellish's first love was for dogs," states Robertson in the letter she wrote to the CNIB.
"With this in mind, I would like to state that her intent was to leave funds for the procurement, training and ensuing placement of guide dogs for the blind," reads the letter from Robertson. "Although she would be sympathetic to the CNIB, I truly believe she would desire any proceeds from her estate to be submitted in total to the seeing eye dogs."
Hanevelt confirms that the society does not train dogs, preferring to focus instead on other services for the blind, including mobility training.
"How that is related (to guide dogs) is that when a person applies to a dog guide school, the dog schools ask us to do an assessment and provide information on the person's mobility skills. In other words, do they have all the independent travel techniques that they need to be able to make the best and appropriate use of a guide dog?" said Hanevelt.
The guide dog associations also contact the CNIB to provide follow-up services once students have their dogs, such as helping them learn to navigate a new community.
"Of the people that are known to the CNIB who use their service, a very small population of them are guide dog handlers. And we are very clear about saying to donors and other folks, what our services are and what they are not."
The society does have a Guide Dog Assistance Fund to pay vet bills for guide dogs. The fund was set up specifically for donations where people specify they want to help with guide dogs, says the CNIB website.
"It's garbage," says McCreath about the fund.
McCreath had never heard of the fund before he began searching for where the Mellish money might have gone.
As a member of the Vancouver Island Dog Guide Society, he wonders how many people are benefiting from this fund if he hasn't heard of it.
Besides, veterinary bills are usually covered by the dog society that trained the dog, he notes.
The real cost to guide dogs is the training, commonly estimated to be $37,000 a year. Blind people don't pay for this, says McCreath.
They pay the training societies a nominal fee.
The logical spot to give money for training dogs is either BC Guide Dog in Vancouver or Canadian Guide Dogs in Ottawa, McCreath says. If they really want to help train guide dogs, the CNIB should give Mellish's money to these agencies, he says.
The Mellish money may not go to CNIB's Guide Dog Assistance Fund, because Mellish added a statement giving the CNIB the final say.
"The purpose of the fund shall be to financially assist such blind persons in the purchase and training of seeing-eye dogs for them, to subsidize the costs of their travel to attend training programs and their living expenses while in attendance, and such other related expenses as the society deems appropriate," wrote Mellish in her will.
The will goes on to express the wish that the money be used for Vancouver Island residents. But the statement ends with the provision that if funds are not required for such a purpose, the money can be used to support other CNIB programs.
"We are certainly obliged legally in any will, in particular with Ms. Mellish to respect her and her families wishes," said Hanevelt, acknowledging the line that gives the CNIB the power to use the money elsewhere.
Still, McCreath is not satisfied.
"I don't want this sort of thing to continue. The facts are that the CNIB do not have anything to do with dogs," he says. "I want them to say: legally we will get these funds, but morally we shouldn't be (getting them)."
McCreath also has a message for the general public.
"What I really want to happen is for people to appreciate that when they donate to charities, they've got to make sure it is going to the people they intended," said McCreath
Story:
" Legacy left to the dogs?"
Published in Saanich News on Oct 13, 2004
Story URL: http://web.bcnewsgroup.com/portals-code/list.cgi?cat=23&paper=28&id=311473