This past week, a young girl whom I greatly admire for her efforts to promote awareness of animal welfare issues, became frustrated by the number of times she heard someone say “It’s just a dog.” She believes, as do we all that all living creatures deserve the same measure of care and compassion. She is young (17) so she has not had to bat her head against the stone wall of ignorance and stupidity for as long as most of us have. She is young, so I do not want her to be discouraged, because I know she is destined to do great things for the animal rights movement.

That got me thinking, how do I convince these people that a dog is not “just a dog”? The answer came to me as answers so often do, while I watched my dogs go about the daily business of being dogs. We are always saying things like “put yourself in his shoes!” and “oh boy! I wouldn’t want to be in her shoes right now!” So today we are going to put ourselves in the proverbial “shoes” of a stray dog.

Take away those opposable thumbs that give the gift of delicate manual dexterity. Take away that golden gift of voice that allows us to verbally communicate our needs. Take away our ability to walk upright. Take away our homes, our bank accounts, and our families. We have no home to go to, no one who cares about us, and we can not speak to others to tell them what we need. We are helpless and vulnerable, at the mercy of humans, we ARE stray dogs.

Where will we go? Will we find shelter? Will we find food enough to sustain us? We will certainly try, but whom will we meet along the way? Perhaps we will be lucky and a kind person will take us into their home and care for us. Perhaps pigs fly? No, sadly our journey is likely to be vastly different from that of the dog who is found by a kind and caring person. If a stray dog could write a journal it might go something like this:

It is dark night, we are in a back alley rooting through a garbage can for the food we can smell. We find it but after wolfing it down hunger still nags at us. It has been days since we found any real food. Yesterday some children threw rocks at us, and the day before that one of us was hit by a car and left to die by the side of the road. The puppies will be coming soon, and I am afraid. I can not feed myself, how will I feed them?

When you look at it through their eyes, maybe some of you are rethinking the way you view animals. Perhaps there is one less person in the world who will say “it’s just a dog.” Perhaps you now understand that every living creature has basic needs, and basic fears. They feel pain, anxiety, love. They suffer, they are not inanimate objects, not “just a dog.”  Hmmm, now that you have “put yourself in their shoes” do you still think “It’s just a dog”?

(Written for my friend and fellow animal advocate Carmen Rose-Locke, London, England who is light years ahead of most her age when it comes to animal advocacy and understanding. I know this girl is destined to make great things happen! NEVER give up Carmen! YOU and your generation ARE the future of animal welfare!)

As Harley and Pebbles would say had I not hijacked their blog spot yet again,

Until Next Week

May your feet stay furry, your nose stay wet, and your food bowl never empty!

Love Ya Lots

Harley & Pebbles (Oh yeah and our Mom, Janette too!)

Our story today comes out of BC from the Animal Advocates Society:

Little blind Chesney lived in a dysfunctional home…

…where he was screamed at for barking, and kicked if he got in the way or ever had an accident. When he was screamed at, he would pee on the floor with fear, then he would be hit or kicked, then he would pee again, and so the cycle continued. Chesney just couldn’t figure out what he was doing wrong and why his family treated him this way.

A social worker who was visiting the home on a regular basis felt very sorry for Chesney and noticed that he could barely see. She asked the family if they had taken him to a vet to get his eyes checked out and they laughed at her. She offered to take Chesney herself and pay for it, so they didn’t object.

After a visit to the eye specialist, who said the cataracts that were seriously interfering with his vision may have been caused by a genetic defect or trauma (the many kicks to his head), the social worker called the family and told them that Chesney needed thousands of dollars to get him back to full health. The family said that they didn’t want Chesney back, so the wonderful social worker is fostering him for AAS while we raise the money for cataract surgery. Chesney is only two years old, a long time to live without being able to see.

April 2007:

Thanks to a generous AAS supporter, Chesney had both eyes operated on. At his second post surgery examination eye specialsit, Dr. Ford, said, “His eyes look fantastic!”

Prior to his cataract surgery, Chesney could hardly see from one eye, and could not see at all from the other. His lack of sight caused him to feel frightened, insecure and in physical pain -often running into fences and poles. Ouch!! He cried a lot.

The day of his surgery, the fabulous doctors at West Coast Veterinary Eye Specialists watched him awake from his anaesthesia and look around for the first time.

What a rewarding job, to give an animal sight!

When Chesney returned home that day, we watched him look around his domain for the first time. Our cat Sasha sensed something had happened to him, and for the first time cuddled behind him as they both slept together.

As the days pass, his eyesight improves. He doesn’t mind his cone as it is totally transparent and he is very comfortable accepting his various eye drops. He even chases his ball now when before he could only sniff around for it.

Words cannot express our gratitude towards Animal Advocates Society for ultimately giving Chesney sight! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! What a miracle it is to have young Chesney see!

Mary and Rita

If you would like to see YOUR pet’s Happy Tail here in our weekly Happy Tails blog please send it (800 words or less) with pictures to:

janettehamilton@bell.net

Don’t Forget to Hug Your Pet!

Janette

I received a discouraged email from  friend and fellow animal advocate yesterday. This woman has worked tirelessly not only to support her own cause, but to promote and support the causes of other advocacy groups. She now finds herself in a position where support from the people she has lent her support to in the past would go a long way toward furthering the cause she is so passionate about. Not one of those groups or individuals have returned a single call or email save for Let’s Adopt Canada. You can see why she is so discouraged!

This makes me ask the question “why?” How is it that a group whom this woman has gone out of her way to support and promote, can not do the same for her when the time comes? I marched beside her during the Million Mutt March in Toronto March 27, 2011, as did many dog owners. The difference for this woman is SHE DOES NOT OWN A DOG PIT BULL OR OTHERWISE, yet she lent her support to a group attempting to over turn BSL in Ontario. When she later called upon that group they wanted nothing to do with her. Apparently as far as they are concerned, her issues of animal welfare are not their concern because they do not further THEIR cause. I however see things differently, after all, are we not ALL on the same side when it comes to protecting the welfare of animals? Should we not be working TOGETHER to promote changes to Canada’s animal welfare laws?

One would think so, however, one of my pet peeves in animal rescue is the seeming disability of individual groups to work together for a common goal. While I have had some minor success in uniting a few of these groups, the majority are not willing to support anything which does not follow their own mandate. Yet they expect the support and concern of everyone involved in animal rescue to get their own issues out there and noticed.

I guess what I am really saying today is this: If we continue to think that the only welfare issue that matters is the one we are personally involved in, we will continue to spin our wheels yet get nowhere. Whether it be BSL you are fighting, or you have a desire to see puppy mills shut down in our country, it is an issue that affects our animals. All of these issues are important when it comes to the big picture, and no one advocacy group is likely to change the face of animal welfare on it’s own. We need, no, we MUST work together toward that common goal if we expect to see changes.

But why is it that these groups do not work together? In my opinion, ego plays a big role in the lack of co-operation between groups. No one group wants to share the glory for changes that might arise from their fight. It is sad really, because most of us got into animal rescue and advocacy because we wanted to change things for our animals. At the beginning we did not care how that was done or whom we had to work with to make our dreams a reality. Somewhere along the line the focus shifted from helping animals to glorifying humans for their attempts to do so.

In conclusion I guess what I am saying is; People put your ego aside and UNITE to reach that common goal! The only way we can possibly change the face of animal welfare in this or any other country, is to begin working together towards a common goal. We need to put aside our differences for the common good!

Until Tomorrow Remember

BE THE CHANGE YOU SEEK!

Janette

Dozens of cats have been removed from a home on Manor Road in midtown Toronto.

The OSPCA said when they arrived at the home, they discovered more than 50 cats roaming the house. The woman who owns the home has surrendered ownership of the animals.

The home was littered with urine and feces which David, who lives two doors down, could smell. “It’s becoming upsetting over the last little while and I think it’s too much. Especially when a lot of these people(in the neighbourhood) are pet owners, and myself being a dog owner, it’s upsetting when animals aren’t treated very well.” David told 680News.

Neighbours who knew the 63-year-old say it began when one of the cats was accidentally let out, and came back pregnant…the situation spiralled from there…

See the original news footage here: 50 Cats removed from Toronto home.

A case of an animal lover who became overwhelmed with the situation? Or is this woman an animal hoarder with a mental disorder? Where do we draw the line between animal lover, and animal hoarder? Perhaps in order to answer that question, we must first determine what it is that differentiates the two.

The above case outlines conditions that no animal should have to live in. Animals need a clean sanitary environment just as much as humans do. None of the animals were altered by the woman in whose house they were found, all were intact and breeding with each other. Animal lovers tend to spay or neuter their pets, both for their own peace of mind that they are not bringing more unwanted animals into the world, and also because they know their pets will be healthier for it.Therefore it would seem that this should be considered a case of animal hoarding.

That having been said, what really in your mind  amounts to animal hoarding? Is a person an animal hoarder because their home contains more pets than the average person deems practical? Or does it go deeper than that, are there more factors to consider? Where exactly does pet ownership end and animal hoarding begin?

I, for example keep multiple pets in my home as you all know. Those pets are vetted regularly, fed properly, and our home is kept clean. I can not tell you how many emergency vet bills we have paid or how many times we have dropped everything and returned home because one of our animals needed us. Am I a hoarder? Many people shake their heads when they learn how many animals we share our home with, but those animals are well cared for. Therefore in my humble opinion we are not hoarders, we are animal lovers.

Therefore, the difference between animal hoarder and animal lover is simply one of animal care. Let me clarify, in my opinion, it doesn’t matter how many pets you keep as long as those pets are properly cared for and vetted. No one should be labeled a hoarder simply because they keep a larger amount of pets than is considered “normal.”  That having been said I believe the woman in the aforementioned case IS an animal hoarder because she failed to properly care for the animals in question. What do YOU think?

Until Tomorrow Remember

BE THE CHANGE YOU SEEK!

Janette

I hope you all had a great Easter weekend. Thankfully, I got to spend a few precious days of quality time with my family and our pets. That is a rare occurrence in my world of animal rescue. This year Easter weekend brought with it no emergencies or new residents. It was a peaceful weekend, something I am always thankful for. Last year Easter weekend saw me adding two senior cats to our ever growing pride.

Now I know that I talk about dogs probably far more than I should, but in my defense I am a dog trainer and behaviorist. However I am sure the lack of cat content has not been lost on our feline loving members. That is why today we are going to discuss cats, and why there are so many of them in shelters all over North America.

Cats are literally a dime a dozen in my neck of the woods. There are feral colonies all over the city I live in. The local shelter is over run, and there are two or three cat rescue groups sharing the local Petsmart adoption centre.  Why are there so many homeless cats? The answer is simple, people don’t think they have to fix their cats. Cats are allowed to roam free, and inevitably females come home pregnant. The resulting litters of kittens are then usually given away to anyone who will take one. In a world like that where is the incentive to head to the shelter and pay to adopt a cat? Again the answer is simple, there is no incentive. People would rather take in a free kitten then pay the local shelter a couple of hundred bucks for a cat.

Free kittens are everywhere at this time of year. Yesterday I visited the shelter in a nearby town. When I walked in the door I was struck by the number of absolutely gorgeous cats housed in the cat adoption rooms. Beautiful healthy cats that have been waiting a long time for forever homes. “Dogs are flying out the door right now!” one volunteer worker told me. “The cats?” she continued, “they don’t move so well at this time of the year. People take in free kittens instead of visiting the shelter in search of a new feline companion.”

It is clear that the only way to combat the cat overpopulation problem is to encourage more people to adopt healthy vetted cats from shelters. One of the ways in which I tend to try to convince people that the shelter cat is the better option is to break down the cost of a free kitten. “The cost of a free kitten?” you say “But the kitten is free, there is no cost!”  But is a free kitten really free? Let us look at the cost of bringing a new “free”animal into your home.

People do not generally vet animals they plan to “give” away. Therefore when bringing a “free” pet home you must factor in the cost of a vet visit for the necessary vaccinations. When adopting a shelter cat those costs are included in the price. At the age of six months your “free” pet will need spay or neuter surgery, unless your community has a low cost/no cost spay and neuter clinic, the cost for this operation can be over $250.00. When you adopt an older shelter cat they are usually already sterilized so that cost is included in the price of adoption. If you are with me so far, you should be beginning to see that the free pet option isn’t really free.

When you adopt a shelter cat, you can be somewhat assured that they are in good health and all issues of medical concern have been dealt with. When you take in a free kitten health is a mystery, and as they usually have not been vetted before being rehomed there are no assurances that your new pet is optimally healthy. That “free” kitten could be a ticking time bomb of medical problems, but you have no way of knowing. Hmmm, is the shelter cat starting to sound like the better option?

So, if you are thinking that adding a cat to your family dynamic is something you want to do this spring, please visit your local shelter. There are hundreds of wonderful adoptable cats just waiting for a new friend like you to come and take them home. Let’s start to think about the feline residents of our local shelters, they need homes too!

Until Tomorrow Remember

BE THE CHANGE YOU SEEK!

Janette

Here’s wishing you all have a great long weekend. Lot’s of time spent with family both two and four legged! Have a great time!

Much love!

Until Tomorrow Remember

BE THE CHANGE YOU SEEK!

Janette & the Let’s Adopt! Canada training pack!