There's a series of articles that the Toronto Globe and Mail has done blowing the whole thing open - the first article was called "Killing them with Kindness" - and it's quite an amazing article. It talks about some of the alleged animals that have died in their cages and the suffering that's been going on behind closed doors that's been allowed to continue because of Tim Trow being in charge. If it's true - the Toronto Humane Society is not a place where animals should be going.
There's a photo montage - but I didn't look at it because it said some of the photos are graphic - and I don't need to upset myself by looking at photos I can do nothing about - so choose for yourself whether or not you want to look at them. The photos in the main article are bad enough.
The Second article was called "A Leader with a passion for animals, loyal supporters, and an iron grip" and it also includes a rebuttal editorial by the president Tim Trow
There's also a great blog in Toronto called "One Bark At A Time" that is following the story - and he's got some good posts about the topic - he's got a great line when he says =
Now I realize the one person's "kitten resting in cage" may be another person's "kitten being neglected, covered in shit and left dying in cage" but eventually members of the THS are going to have to decide for themselves whose interpretation of reality they want to follow.
And to show even further that the Toronto Humane Society's current problems are quite like the NS SPCA's of the last couple years - Fred has a post with an article from 2001 outlining how the THS was imploding even back then - not unlike how the NS SPCA had a report in 2001 called - I'm paraphrasing here - "how to build harmony in the NS SPCA - because everything at the Board level was going to shit - even back then.
The other story from away that's like a story that's been going on locally is a story down in San Antonio Texas. I found the story on "Yes Biscuit's" Blog in a post called "Holding Ourselves Accountable: Confinement" - and it's about a pitbull who's owner has had a string of pet pitbulls and continues to let them run at large through her neighbourhood, and her neighbours had become so pissed off that they'd started a petition because they felt like prisoners in their own homes - and everything has gotten so out of hand between the dog's owner, the neighbours and the city that the dog in question may be killed - and he's never even bit a dog or a human, he's completely acknowledged to not be dangerous, and the town is talking about a ban on pit bulls - all because of this dog owner.
There's a couple of interesting twists to this story - this dog owner is accusing a couple of her vietnamese neighbours with EATING two of her previous pit bulls - and there's some video footage that you may want to check out.
It's all very interesting because it really shows the importance of leash laws and having control of your dogs - and that if you cannot control your dogs - that they will be taken away from you.
And also - the time to work with Animal Control about your dog problems - and the time to work with your dog about his problems - is before Animal Control takes him away. Respect the laws that are already in place - like leash laws, and you'll be pretty safe that you won't have any run-ins with Animal Control.
The Animal Control Department in San Antonio determined that the dog in this story was not in fact dangerous - but they decided NOT to give the dog back to the owner because her inability to control the dog could cause the "situation to escalate" - so in other words - she could not control her dog. Interesting.
The news story is at "San Antonio News"
I see the Globe series continues today. Scary and so, so sad.
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