Global TV
July 6, 2004

Tony Parsons: The life of a dog, a Rottweiller cross, is very much up in the air tonight. Animal behavior experts with the SPCA have determined that it's too aggressive and unpredictable and should be put down. But a well-known worker has disagreed with that assessment and has taken big risks to save the dog. The latest developments in this story tonight from Linda Aylesworth.

Linda Aylesworth: Every year 50,000 dogs come through B.C. SPCAs, most of them perfectly friendly, would make excellent pets. Others not so much. How do you tell the difference? Many aggressive dogs seem nice, like this one, but don't be fooled. He's not up for adoption because he's a biter.

CEO Craig Daniell: We need to make sure that the public has some confidence in the dogs we have available for adoption, that they're going to make good, it's going to be a good match and these dogs are going to make a positive impact in the community.

Linda Aylesworth: That's why the SPCA turned to the UBC animal welfare department to come up with a dog temperament assessment test or DTA, which determines, among other things, what each dog is like and what risk, if any, it can potentially pose.

Crowd (June 19 clip): Give Cheech a chance. Give Cheech a chance.

Linda Aylesworth: That's where the controversy surrounding this dog, Cheech, comes in.

Jennifer Dickson: We would like to get out to the public the fact that Cheech is a sweetheart, that he has been unjustly labeled by the SPCA as being a dangerous dog.

Linda Aylesworth: The Animal Advocates Society of BC says Cheech, a young Rottweiller-Lab cross was incorrectly labeled as being aggressive and unadoptable, that the test failed him. He was to be euthanized but two SPCA staff members dognapped him and took him into hiding.

Jennifer Dickson: We've done a similar test with Cheech and we have not been able to get him to bite. He has an extremely high bite inhibition.

Linda Aylesworth: But the SPCA's animal welfare manager is sure no mistake was made, that Cheech does exhibit aggressive tendencies.

Nadine Gourkow Animal Welfare Manager: When something actually scares him or when he's in a situation where he's unsure of the people, when they're scared and so on, his first choice is going to be to show aggression and to defend himself. He perceives danger and he's going to defend himself. Over and above that because he's at a very high fear level, it takes very little to cause him fear.

Child (to Cheech): Oh, thank you.

Linda Aylesworth: But in a video made by Animal Advocates Society, Cheech seems harmless. He even lets a trained dog handler rough house with him.

Nadine Gourkow: The response of the dog on the video didn't surprise me at all. The person who was assessing the dog has removed all of the triggers that illicit that aggressive response in him with his body posture, leaning down, with feeding the dog, with being very confident with him, and if this touching had been the dominant, he would have triggered him but because he's a fearful dog his behavior actually removes, but you know in real life unfortunately we don't have skilled people who know how to behave especially with a dog that threatens them.

Linda Aylesworth: No one could be 100% sure that with or without rehabilitation Cheech will attack someone, someday, but the SPCA says he meets, even surpasses, any number of criteria of becoming a danger. Letting him be adopted out is a risk they say they just can't take.

Craig Daniell: We're being painted by Animal Advocates as being cold-hearted and uncaring and quite frankly, you know that just, I don't think just that's fair to be quite honest. I think people need to understand the organization a little bit better before they pass judgment.