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Shelter In Crisis, Pt 2 – Inside the THS

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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.

The rest is here.

THS – Ruining No Kill for the Rest of Us

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Gravely ill cat suffers in cage at the Toronto Humane Society

Gravely ill cat suffers in cage at the Toronto Humane Society

I’ve spent a lot of years defending the Toronto Humane Society against the nasty rumors that have been flying around. I was a volunteer dog walker there for a long time, and made some great friends, both four footed and two footed. It seems, however, that things aren’t just as bad I’ve been hearing – they’re actually much, much worse.

THS has long been a pioneer of No Kill, but the news report in the Globe and Mail spells out just what THS has been willing to sacrifice to be able to make that claim. Animals left to suffer and die, alone and in pain. Elderly dogs forced to endure pointless surgeries and painful recoveries, only to die in agony. Kittens and cats who scream and writhe in death throes, with no one there to alleviate their suffering. All of the myriad tortures that opponents of No Kill have always claimed would occur, and all taking place in Canada’s largest and best funded private shelter.

Toronto Humane Society has lost the right to include the word ‘humane’ in their name, through greed and negligence and sheer stubbornness. THS President Tim Trow has, in the (as always) dead accurate words of One Bark at a Time, “become like an animal hoarder with a multi-million budget”.

What the animals are going through at THS is unconscionable, and unforgivable. From the Globe and Mail article:

On May 11, barely five months after a leg amputation that removed a cancerous limb, Bobik’s foster mother brought him in for care at the THS.

The incision from his leg amputation re-opened, his breathing was laboured, saliva dripped from his mouth and there was blood in his stool.

On the afternoon of May 12, after bleeding from his anus for two days, Bobik died.

Most shelters would have put Bobik down, said two veterinarians, as the cancer in his leg was likely to spread, and learning to walk on three legs can be difficult for an arthritic dog with hip dysplasia. Indeed, internal records show that many animals admitted to the THS die slow deaths rather being euthanized.

The cats are suffering, too.

A note written by a staff member or volunteer on the medical chart of a cat, Animal ID A127495, admitted last fall, reads: “Died Oct 19 3:15 am. Gasped and jerked and cried last breaths, because there was no one in shelter to euthanize or treat. This is not humane”

Everything that every single detractor of No Kill has ever claimed will happen if a shelter attempts No Kill has been happening at Toronto Humane Society. They’re a dirty stain on the reputation of No Kill, the ugly step sister to the good shelters who kill for kindness when it becomes the only humane thing left to offer the animals who come in their doors. No Kill is tainted by their affiliation, and brought low by their greed and lies.

Shame on the THS. Shame on Tim Trow.