September 2002... one of many calls to AAS for help for an animal, but this one really hurt. Lorraine W was tears. The night before, she had heard the cries of a miserable dog. The cries went on and on until Lorraine could not bear it any longer and putting on her raincoat she went out in the pounding rain, following the sounds of a frightened, lonely dog until she found him.

She found him behind the chainlink of a car lot in East Vancouver, lying on the concrete, soaking wet, frightened, so depressed and despairing that he would not at first raise his head from the ground when Lorraine spoke to him, not even when Lorraine offered him the biscuits she had thoughtfully brought.

Lorraine's word to us, through her tears were, "He seemed to wish to die, that he had given up on life, and that he no longer cared what happened to him. At last he dragged himself to his feet and stiffly came to my outstretched hand. He would not take the biscuit but just stood there looking dully at the ground. He is a big, dark, shaggy German shepherd and seems to be very old. He looked dirty and matted, and soaked to the skin. I could see a dog house on the lot, but he would have been very cramped to stay in it and maybe he was just tired of being cooped up all the time, behind chainlink, in kennels and pens and doghouses. Maybe being wet and cold is not as miserable as been cramped in a dog house."

"This dog", Lorraine went on, "is no guard dog. He didn't even bark at me much less try to guard anything. He hates his life, you could see that it was destroying him. He's no good as a guard dog."

Lorraine could barely sleep that night - the image of this poor frightened dog would not allow her any peace.

So in the morning she phoned AAS, because she had heard that we really do something, not just talk. And we did.

Read about how AAS rescued this dog from the biggest guard dog business in BC and how these companies thrive on the misery of big protection breed dogs.