Pet rescue: The untold tails!
ANIMAL ADOPTION. Finding homes for B.C.'s unwanted creatures -- great and small

Peter Clough
The Province
Sunday, February 18, 2007

It was a well-planned Corgi rescue mission across two countries.

Buckingham Palace, take note.

Roxie was just minutes from being escorted to the euthanization room at a shelter in New Mexico when an animal rescue group from Colorado showed up to sign the papers for her release.

Keeping track of Roxie's fate over the Internet from her home in Langley, Donna Stewart knew she had to act fast.

The founder of Donna's Corgi Rescue, thankful for the connections she's developed over five years, co-ordinated Roxie's ride to freedom.

"All the different rescue groups from Colorado up to Washington drove different legs and brought the dog up here," Donna explains.

"I drove across to Washington and picked her up with the intent of finding a home for her."

Thousands of volunteers across B.C. put in countless hours each year saving an unbelievable variety of lost, abandoned or unwanted pets. One Internet service lists 144 pet rescue groups in the province -- dedicated to finding loving homes for rabbits, snakes, gerbils, ferrets and frogs, tropical fish, bearded dragons, red-footed tortoises, blue-tongued skinks, three-toed box turtles, frog-eyed geckos, red-eared sliders, Congo grey parrots, African pygmy hedgehogs, Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs, Caiman crocodiles . . .

And rats.

In the canine department, there are groups dedicated to the rescue of rescue dogs. And if you thought the West Vancouver organization called Compassion For Persians had anything to do with Iranian refugees, you'd be wrong.

The story of Roxie the Corgi mix-breed is one of hundreds of pet rescue success stories that never make the headlines.

As Donna explains, Roxie was "such a sweetie" when she finally began her new life in Canada that she ended up becoming a permanent member of her family and is no longer listed for adoption.

But Corgi rescue isn't always so dramatic. Most of the unwanted pets Donna has helped have been given up simply because of their age. Rescue work is often about finding homes for animals of uncertain pedigree -- or pets that have been traumatized or injured.

"They're all sad stories and you want to help them all," says Donna.

It was all the sad stories that prompted Val Lofvendahl to petition Richmond Council for a bylaw to control the sale of exotic reptiles in pet stores. A partial ban was put into effect but after running the Reptile Rescue, Adoption and Education Society for almost four years Val says a total ban is now what's needed.

All but one bedroom and a bathroom of her family's home has been taken over by an assortment of adorable boa constrictors, iguanas, bearded dragons, etc., etc. Val says she's looking forward to the day when that big donation comes in -- an offer to help her build an independent shelter so that she won't have to turn unwanted reptiles away.

Surrey's Rainforest Reptile Refuge, a much bigger shelter that's open to the public, often has unwanted pets dumped in the driveway. It's one reason Val makes a point of not publishing her own address.

In a two-day period last year, she took in 16 boa constrictors, a monitor lizard, two bearded dragons and a leopard gecko, abandoned by a drug addict who'd been "breeding" the pets for spare cash.

"She had abandoned all her animals," says Val. "She had bred her boa constrictors and left babies behind as well as three adults. It took a year to get the last of the boas adopted out."

Val is thankful that she's been able to cut her vet bills by learning reptile first aid and homeopathy. She's also able to cover some of her expenses by adopting the pets out -- but only after being satisfied that the animal is going to a good home.

"I've had people call and say they need a leopard gecko by Saturday for my wife's birthday," says Val. "I tell them you have to fill out the form.

"I'd rather keep an iguana for another year than adopt it out to somebody who doesn't know what they're getting into. They need to know that an iguana can grow to six feet and it can be aggressive and you need to be prepared for that."

In the world of pet rescue, you never know what the next phone call is going to bring.

One day in November, Janice Gillett, founder of the Hearts On Noses Sanctuary for Vietnamese Pot-Bellied Pigs, was called out to the woods near her home in Maple Ridge by someone who'd spotted a piglet limping down a country lane.

Janice and the guy who'd called eventually found the tiny Yorkshire porker in the bush, suffering from a busted leg.

"I scooped her up and drove home with her on my lap and brought her into the house," says Janice. "I took her in for X-rays and sure enough her hip had been shattered and her leg had been broken and fused."

Today Rose is 450 pounds and doing well -- still limping but learning to fit in with her 22 Vietnamese companions.

Pot-bellies have long been a fad for the kind of people who like to be the centre of attention by taking exotic animals down to the beach or the park. But finding new homes for them when their owners get bored isn't easy. Some Lower Mainland municipalities have bylaws that prohibit domestic swine.

The well-meaning family that rescued Pebbles from a slaughter yard, for example, didn't know that their new pet was an illegal resident.

"They took her home and had her for a year," explains Janice. "She probably spent 95 per cent of the time in the house. Then somebody in the neighbourhood reported her.

"The bylaw officer felt terrible about it because obviously Pebbles was loved and properly taken care of. But it's against the law and they were given a month to find a new home."

Janice found Pebbles a temporary placement with a foster family in Saanich until a space was eventually freed up at Hearts on Noses.

One of the most active pet welfare organizations in Canada is the Small Animal Rescue Society of B.C. (SARS), which depends on a network of some 200 volunteer foster families. SARS claims to deal with at least 15 times more cases of unwanted pets than all the SPCAs in the Lower Mainland combined.

Its president, Lisa Hutcheon, says about half of the animals they rescue come via SPCA shelters that are unable to cope with the sheer volume and variety of abandoned pets.

Earlier this month, workers at the Kamloops SCPA arrived at work to find a box of 24 rats dumped on the doorstep. When one of the females gave birth a few days later, SARS was called in to help. They already have adoptions pending for three of the little ones.

"There's quite a rat network out there," says Lisa, whose group also stepped in last June when more than 1,000 rats were recovered from a house in Petaluma, Calif. SARS helped co-ordinate a "rattie train" up the coast and B.C. families opened their hearts and doors to 12 of them -- like the two who arrived by plane to begin a new life in Prince George.

SARS has seen a huge increase in abandoned bunnies and chinchillas. Another "statement pet" that's been showing up at animal shelters is the African pygmy hedgehog.

"People don't know how to care for them so a lot of them will be covered in mites or they're undernourished because they've had the wrong diet," says Lisa.

"A lot will be housed together even though they're solitary animals -- so a lot of them come in injured. This one fellow just surrendered two because he got them for his kids and didn't know they're nocturnal."

SARS recently recovered 32 degus from a house in East Vancouver -- unlikely victims of the B.C. drug trade.

"They sell them to the pet stores to get money for drugs," Lisa explains. "There are also people we know about who'll pose as a grandfather looking for small animals for his grandson -- but they're really looking for snake food."

Lisa's nine-to-five job involves caring for humans in her role as manager of patient programs at the B.C. Heart and Stroke Foundation.

But rescuing animals that many people consider lower forms of life than cats and dogs is her passion.

"It's everything I do," she says. "You take a lot of a disappointment and a lot of heartache. It's just depressing a lot of the time but in the end it's so worthwhile, especially when you find them a home."

And that includes rats.

Lisa's hoping Province readers will check out their cute little faces on the SARS website -- Camilla, Wanda, Harriet, Bernie, Nigel and the rest of them -- and put in an application to adopt.

"You know what?" says Lisa. "They make the best kids' pets. They're hardy, they're social, they're smart, they're interactive, they're not nocturnal -- and they're super clean."

Rabbit rescue...

Olga Betts has lost track of the number of abandoned bunnies she's taken in.

Running Vancouver Rabbit Rescue is harder work, she says, than the job she left as a UBC administrator.

"We wouldn't have much to do if they didn't sell baby rabbits in pet stores," says Olga. "They're bought for children and they're not a good pet for children. They live for 10 years or longer and they require quite a lot of care."

Rabbit Rescue is lucky to have space donated at a horse stable in Southlands. Olga, who keeps some of the rabbits in her laundry room, says she just about manages to recover the $30,000 in vet bills and other expenses by selling gourmet rabbit food and upscale hay.

"We want to stay afloat so that we can educate," she says.

She has also produced a steamy awareness-raising calendar called Men With Buns.

"The calendar is to promote the message that rabbits are for adults," says Olga. "We have them with men -- and they're real men who own pet rabbits. They're not models

Ferret rescue...

Karl Brodhecker, founder of the world's first ferret rescue society, is gearing up for peak season.

Spring is when people tend to turn out their unwanted ferrets.

The Vancouver finance broker co-ordinates a small network of ferret foster families across the city to help one of the most misunderstood pets on the market.

Ferrets are out of fashion now but it wasn't long ago they were considered essential shoulder ornaments by edgy young people with low self-esteem.

The demand for them a decade ago produced all kinds of breeding problems -- adding to an overall lack of knowledge that Karl says is still obvious today.

"Ferrets require a lot of attention," says Karl, who runs First Ferret Information Rescue Shelter from his Vancouver apartment.

"They're more like two-year-old children than anything else. Very high energy level, very intelligent little animals and along with that they have a very sophisticated psychological profile -- much more than people are willing to accept in an animal."

Educating adoption applicants is a big part of his work.

"They're not cage animals," says Karl. "Putting them in a cage is like locking a child in a bathroom. They get intellectually frustrated and then when they do get out they're destructive, just like a child would be."

Horse rescue...

People who contact the Circle F Horse Rescue ranch in Abbotsford to surrender their horses are often in a state of distress.

"The last one came to us because the woman couldn't afford to feed it," says founder Walter Paetkau. "It was standing in water and mud and she asked whether we could take it before she had to neglect it."

Walter spends about $40,000 a year rescuing horses that have become a burden for their owners. He recovers some expenses through dinners, auctions and a small grant from the B.C. Gaming Commission.

His retirement project pays off when he finds new homes.

"The good news is that a family in the Pemberton Valley adopted Michika and Maverick this week," says Walter. "We were hoping they could go together because they have been a pair for many years."

Bird rescue...

Audrey Wilsenack, who operates 911 Parrot Alert Canada, says she "felt like an idiot" the day she walked around her Abbotsford neighbourhood whistling at the trees and calling for Alex.

"But you have to do it," she explains.

Losing a parrot is so easy. People leave windows open or they get so used to having a bird on their shoulder that they forget when they step outside to get the mail.

Audrey's online database of missing Alexandrians, cockatiels and Congo Greys -- 10 to 15 cases every week in Canada -- is part of a parrot recovery network across North America. She not only posts pictures of missing birds but instructs distraught owners on how to find them -- by putting out the cage and a familiar toy or walking around the neighbourhood ringing a bell and calling out a name.

"Familiarity will often trigger a response," says Audrey. "They may answer to your voice whereas they wouldn't for a stranger."

Audrey also volunteers for the Greyhaven Exotic Bird Sanctuary in Surrey.