Feedback from Yesterday's Homeward Bound Open House

First off - I'm going to open up with a question that I don't have the answer for - if Homeward Bound City Pound is only taking in animals provided to them by HRM and Animal Control, and the Dartmouth SPCA is the shelter for the provincial Nova Scotia SPCA - who is now sheltering the animals for the homeless and abandoned animals of the HRM and Nova Scotia? It appears to me as if those animals have been completely left in the lurch. The only organizations doing anything about those animals now are private rescues. Who receive no funding from anyone but private donations and fundraising - which is as it always was - but really - those animals have no one. It is now glaringly obvious.

Today Hope Swinamer gave an interview to Cyril on Breakfast Television and I've typed out some of it because she says some good stuff - he starts out by saying something that a lot of people think - that we have a lot of "stray dogs" - which is exactly what Homeward Bound WON'T be dealing with - so Hope HAD to correct that right off -

CYRIL - "We really do have a need for it, there's a lot of strays out there."

"Hope - Well I think too that people need to understand the difference between the City Pound, and a shelter - and we are definitely the City Pound - we're here for HRM and Animal Control, and so it's what they pick up. Animals that have been reported, and they'll be brought here - and our job is pretty simple, we have 4 things and it's to give them tender loving care, and 2 is to give them veterinary care if they need it, and 3 is to get them back with their owners if it's at all possible within the 72 hours and 4 and most important is our adoption program and we're really excited about that - so we want to get a good waiting list of people that are looking for dogs and want to adopt them out - an animal in need."

Cyril - "Alright - well I know you're going to do a great job, Hope - and congratulations on this great facility."

So who WILL be dealing with stray dogs now in the HRM? That is an interesting question.

Some of the comments today on the Chronicle Herald's article were pretty interesting too if you wanted to check them out as well.

What I don't get is that Hope Swinamer is coming into this project with such a humungously amazing reputation - and that's what the comments on the Chronicle Herald article echo - why is she willing to let all of that vapourize with the associations that she is obviously becoming entangled with - and such a risky project. It's mind boggling. But there are obviously much bigger brains at work here than mine - so I'm sure that everything will work out as fate has intended.

If you wanted to look at some more of the Pound - there's some video on Breakfast Television's Facebook site as well

I uploaded some of Breakfast Television's coverage to You Tube, so that's what you'll see below -