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.