Shelter In Crisis, Pt 2 – Inside the THS
From the second part of the three part Globe and Mail article on the Toronto Humane Society –
Jaxson, a 55-kilogram bull mastiff, had never been to Toronto.
So when his owners, Bree Piccinin and Trevor Perkins, decided they wanted to bring him along for a three-hour drive through a snowstorm from their home in London to the Toronto Humane Society, they decided to bring his prong collar.
They were considering making a $500 donation and adopting another dog, and wanted to make sure the animal would be compatible with Jaxson.
When they got to Toronto that day shortly before last Christmas, they left Jaxson’s flat nylon collar in the car and put on his prong collar, just in case anything startled him inside the shelter. A prong collar is comprised of a series of metal prongs that protrude inward and pinch a dog’s neck if it strains against a leash.
But soon after they entered the lobby, a large man began yelling at Ms. Piccinin and Mr. Perkins.
Ms. Piccinin, a 22-year-old bank worker who has worked with pit bull rescue groups in London, said that the man asked whether her dog was wearing a prong collar.
“And then he starts shouting, ‘I’m the president of the Toronto Humane Society and you have to get out of here’” she said.
“He continued to yell at us and call us dog abusers and then had some people escort us out of the building,” Mr. Perkins, a 28-year-old construction worker, said.
Well yeah – ’cause, you know, it’s SO MUCH kinder to kill dogs than to train them with prong collars.
What a nutcase.
SmartDogs’s last blog post..Culling the Flock
~sigh~
Once again the prong gets a bad rap… I totally understand where the bullmastiff owner was coming from.. and I disagree that prongs are causing “constant” pain. If the dog doesn’t pull and the handlers doesn’t rank the crap out of the dog (you know, use is properly) they are fine. My girls are always walked on prong collars… because my neighborhood sucks.. because a prong actually SAVED my dogs life two weeks ago..
Too bad the policy against prongs couldn’t have been enforced in a more professional way. They could have adopted a dog out..
Fuzzy Logic’s last blog post..Water Dogs v2.0
Good so see those knowledgeable about prongs speak out. Just a sidenote – apparently the THS is completely OK with the use of prong collars; as long as it is solely for training purposes.
If you ask me, an 18mth old Bullmastiff in a new, big city animal shelter during an adoption drive sounds like an damn good training ground to me!
Either way – its just one story out of hundreds regarding visitors of the THS being turned away, shouted at or embarassed by Trow for silly, trivial, unwaranted reasons. Unfortunately, its not even close to the ‘worst’ of whats going on at the THS.