Refurbishing other people's garbage

I was asked to write a story for the website "Readwave" - so I did - you can click on the link to read the whole thing!  -

Read on ReadWave.com

no chains All Love Dog Rescue is still chugging on

I thought I would do an update on the little dog rescue that I started in July in response to the need that People for Dogs expressed - that they were worried that people would want to surrender chained dogs to them and they wouldn't have anywhere to place them to - so I said I'd start a rescue so that the dogs would have somewhere to go.

To date we've rescued around 10 dogs and they've all been fabulous dogs - which is something that I want to show with this rescue - that once dogs become unattached to a dog house that they are just normal dogs.

We always hear that horrible statistic - that chained dogs are 2.8 times more likely to bite than dogs that aren't chained - but it's my belief that once they become unchained - that statistic disappears - and I want to prove it with my rescue.

Ben was our first rescue - chained for 5 years in Preston - and he's an amazing dog who is so loved by his family now - you can see what a full member of his family he is - they even went and had professional photos done!

When I found Taffy she was chained to a trailer, not even a collar around her neck - she had a chain - which had to be so uncomfortable in the heat of summer and in the winter - but she was such a gentle dog - and obsessed with balls! Her new family loves her and started off fostering her - when someone else became interested in her they decided to adopt her because they couldn't lose a dog that they said was "so near perfect".

Buddy just arrived a couple days ago and was chained for 9 years! He is a gentle giant and missing a lot of fur because he's so itchy - but he's going to make someone a great dog - he needs to gain a lot of weight and his paws and head are a lot larger than his body - which means that when he fills out he's going to be a lot bigger than he is now - but he's so calm, and so nice - it's such a shame that he's been ignored for the last nine years, really a crime.

This is Roy, and this is the pit he lived in for the first 2 years of his life. He now lives on a farm having the time of his life - why would someone abandon a dog to this? How would you like to live like this? It's amazing how resilient dogs are that they can come out of this and be so forgiving and move on and be normal dogs - but they are.

Here are some of the other dogs we've helped - Tina - who was 8 months old when we took her in - below, that puppy pile includes a beagle named Angel who became Maggie, in the middle is Billy - a dog who was chained for 17 years!  Can you imagine!  At the top right is Nikita - a dog chained for 5 years - and at the bottom right is a dog named Thunder - who is a little different - he has been kept in a vacant house - which is a chaining of a different type - but he needed rescue regardless - and he's going to be an awesome dog too.

We have also paid for the neutering of dogs if the owner agrees to bring the dogs inside the home - so there's more than one way to unchain a dog.

The 24/7 365 days a year confinement of dogs is inhumane.  We are not talking or targeting the dogs who are tied out while you put your dog out to pee, or for a few hours a day - we are talking about the dogs who have no access to water, shelter, or food and are SUFFERING.

The dogs who have abandoned in back yards in Nova Scotia and for whatever reason the NS SPCA doesn't seem to be able to help - those are the dogs we want to help.

We want the dogs that are not going to survive the winter.  And we think those dogs are saveable - we think those dogs will make good house pets.  A lot of people don't - but we do.

We have a letter that we can send to those dog's owners - you can read it at http://nochainsalllove.ca/plea.pdf - you can print it out yourself and send it to the dog owner and hopefully the dog's owner will call us - or you can contact us through our website at http://nochainsalllove.ca/ and we can send the letter to them ourselves.

We also have a facebook page at http://facebook.com/nochainsalllove  if you want to stay connected to us.

Here are the stats for the District of the Municipality of King's vet records

If you want to see the raw stats - so to this link

http://sinden.ca/impound.pdf

These are raw stats and it's not a pretty spreadsheet - so take it for what it is

How much easier could I make it for you, District of the municipality of Kings?

The CBC Radio piece aired this morning about the problem that Kings County is having with killing too many cats - and it was so predictable what the Animal Control officer said as to the reason why they are killing so many - they have to.

There are too many cats, they have no place to put them, and no one to work with in placing them - and really, it's the public's fault because they don't spay and neuter.

So boring.

This is 2013, animal control officer. There are so many other solutions out there it's mind boggling - we even have lots of other places in Nova Scotia who are doing fabulous things you should be ASHAMED!!

You have no further to look than Homeward Bound POUND and the Nova Scotia SPCA for ideas - so that you could do your JOB more effectively and save lives.

Have you never read the book Redemption by Nathan Winograd? If you haven't I've got a couple extra copies and I will give you one for free - just as long as you promise that you will read it.

There are so many ways to NOT KILL these days - and the number one way is to make the decision to NOT KILL. It really is as easy as that. Ask any no kill shelter - even open admission shelters that are no kill how they became no kill how they did it - one day when they opened up they decided on that day they stopped killing and they did whatever they had to do to NOT KILL THAT DAY. It's as easy as that - you find solutions.

You take those kittens you had previously killed to the local mall instead of the veterinarian for euthanasia - and get them out in public, you actively recruit foster homes, there's all kinds of stuff you can do to stop the killing accoding to the "No kill equation" - it's not rocket science, you don't have to invent the wheel - it's been done elsewhere, it's worked elsewhere - it's worked in animal control facilities exactly like the municipality of the district of King's - there just has to be the will.

Whether that exists - I have no idea.

But stop blaming the cats, stop blaming the public - stop blaming other animal advocates - those aren't the ones who are doing the killing - it's the animal control department that's doing it - and the killing won't stop until they take blame for it - and then do the work needed to fix it - and stop the killing

Something is happening in King's County

A friend of mine did a freedom information request for the municipality of King's asking for their impound and euthanization statistics for dogs and cats - and  what he got back was very disturbing - since July 2011 they have killed 347 cats until August of 2013 - its even more stunning when you compare it to 3 other areas that we also have statistics for - the Nova Scotia SPCA's statistics from around Nova Scotia for the same time, Annapolis Royal, and the HRM's statistics for dogs.

We only have  King's County's statistics to go by - what they gave us - but it appears that they only adopted out 54 cats in that time period - so they killed many many more cats than what they adopted out.

They killed friendly cats, feral cats, pregnant cats, friendly kittens, healthy kittens - every cat that was euthanized had a description next to it on the statistics we were given - so there were a lot of sick cats that did need to be euthanized - not every animal can be saved and we appreciate that - but the numbers are startling.

347 cats were killed between the dates of July 2011 to August 2013 at a cost of $14,367.44 - from the comments section on the veterinary bills we learned that at least 83 of them or 24% were feral cats.

92 cats were described as being friendly - 26%

9 cats were pregnant - and 25 of them were described as suffering - so only 7% were killed for medical reasons or because they were suffering.

99 that were killed were kittens - some of those were described as being feral as well - but kittens represented 28.5% of the total amount of cats killed.

In the same period Annapolis Royal killed 78 cats - how could an area so geographically close have such lower numbers? 

The representative from Annapolis Royal said what they do with cats is "that cats are taken by Companion Animal Protection Society as long as they have room or if feral they are taken in by Team TNR" - so they are obviously working with their local rescues groups which is what is needed to get to their numbers.

The HRM's Homeward bound in 2011 killed 51 dogs in 2011 and 47 dogs in 2012 for a total of 98 dogs in the same 2 years - they aren't supposed to do cats so I didn't ask for their stats on cats.

But the real surprising numbers come when you compare King's County to the NS SPCA's numbers on cats.

They are even worse than the Cape Breton SPCA! And for those people familiar with the Cape Breton SPCA - that's saying something!

For 2011 we don't have numbers, but in 2012 the CB SPCA only killed 83 cats! Multiply that by 2 and you still only get 164!

The King's County SPCA only killed 58 cats - and they intook 690 cats - so that's a pretty good intake for an SPCA in the same county who's pound killed 347 cats.

The Antigonish SPCA killed 11 cats.

Even the largest shelter in Nova Scotia - the provincial shelter in Dartmouth - in the same 2 year period - only killed 198 cats.

So there is an obvious problem in the municipality of Kings.  What can we do about it?  I have no idea - obviously convenience killing is going on - feral cats are being killed - there is no liaising with rescues, when a cat is picked up - it is killed the same day it is impounded - this is what the statistics are saying.

If you live in King's County and you think cats are being taken care of - you are sorely mistaken - you are not - you need to contact your municipal officials and demand something be done - because your stray and abandoned cats deserve better than what's happening today - which is an immediate death when they have any interaction with municipal officials - no chance whatsoever at adoption or a forever home.

You should be angry - I don't even live  there and I am angry.

We have done Freedom of information requests for every municipality in Nova Scotia to compare and see if there's any other areas that are as bad as King's - when they come in we will let you know.

I've become obsessed with those pic stitch programs

As you can see below - I've become obsessed with those pic stitch programs - here's a couple of the collages I've made -

This is a collage of photos of Buttercup from over the years - isn't she unbelievably awesome?

I took this one at a blessing of the animals a couple weeks ago up in the north end of Halifax - doesn't Buttercup look impressed?

Here is Taffy at Long Lake - she is really a lovely outdoors dog and this has been her favourite place to be - bar none.

This is Buttercup and Bubby - Bubby is sick with kennel cough and Buttercup is having sympathetic sickness feelings with him

This is Tina - who used to be Neena - and Taffy - the night before Taffy went to her new foster home

This is Taffy at her new foster home - shangri-la for her - the pictures coming back from there are just unbelievably awesome

Pictures from a walk at Long Lake with Tina

Breed Specific Legislation is alive and well in Nova Scotia

If you thought that bsl was not in Nova Scotia - you were wrong.

I had thought it only existed in 3 places - the district of the municipality of Guysborough - the home of the inimitable Lloyd Hines - the County of Antigonish, and the county of Richmond - but we found out on Facebook today that the town of Digby also has bsl - and it`s enforced whenever they feel like enforcing it.

(As a side note - I never got to read what the town of Yarmouth finally worked out when they redid their dog bylaw - so it may or may not have bsl in it - I don't know - and I haven't been able to bring it up on my computer all night tonight for some reason)

Here is what the current mayor of Digby - Mayor Ben Cleveland - said on his Facebook page about the subject:

"Thanks for your comments... most recognize that the owners of pets are the problem, and those people need to be educated on proper care in order to become responsible owners .. until then, the Residents of the Town put forward this by-law. It is unfortunate that there was incident recently in Digby that lead to a child requiring hospital care after being bitten by one of the breeds mentioned so it will remain to be seen whether they will like to have the by-law appealed."

So as you can see - bsl is going nowhere in the town of Digby.

So Nova Scotia is not a bsl free province - and we have some work to do when it comes to educating the people we have in power - or removing those people who are in power. One or the other.

One thing I do have to say about Digby though is that when I was researching for this blog post I found a link to some minutes where a decision was made to give $1,000 so that funding could be provided to have cats "spaded/neutered" - their spelling, not mine - so they do care about animal welfare in Digby obviously when it is negatively impacting them - they just need to be directed in a more enlightened way that's safer for humans and for dogs - because as we all know bsl is definitely not the way to go.

ps - this all started because a facebook friend of mine was doing due diligence - she was planning on moving to Digby with her family - and she owns dobermans - so she was looking up the dog bylaw in Digby to make sure it was okay to move there and was shocked by what she found.

Some people who lived there didn't even know that the bsl existed in the bylaw - other people said that it wasn't enforced - and I told her that if it was on the books - then she could not take a chance - some asshole could come into power and her dogs would be dead - and sure enough when she posted on the Mayor's facebook page - he confirmed that the bylaw is in fact enforced - so this is a perfect case of doing your research - because if she'd moved there and THEN found out about the bsl - and a problem happened - what could she have done then? She'd have been screwed.

And this is in Nova Scotia TODAY! HERE in NOVA SCOTIA. Today. With doberman pinschers. Not even the illustrious pit bulls. In Digby - all these dogs are considered fierce and dangerous - Rottweiler, Bull Mastiff, Doberman, or Staffordshire Bull Terrier or Pit Bull Terrier dog(or a hybrid Rottweiler, Bull Mastiff, Doberman, Staffordshire bull terrier or Pit-bull terrier).

Another interesting note is that this applies only in the town of Digby - the municipality of the District of Digby has no bsl - so if you don't bring your dog into town - you are SAFE.

Here is a link to the town of Digby's bylaw

Does anyone want to take over my Charlie loves Halifax Site?

Charlie loves Halifax has been the only dog website that has talked about dog friendly Halifax since 2002 and has never really lived up to it's potential - simply because I've never taken the time needed to put into it - it could be so much more.

And now that I'm thinking about moving outside the city - I am wondering if there is someone out there who would like to take over for me and bring the website to where it could be - and bring dog friendly Halifax to another level.

There is so much that could be done to the site - the businesses that are on the site have said that they are willing to pay for being posted there - so it could be a money making venture - and it has always been a dream of mine to either turn the site into a book "Charlie's guide to dog friendly Halifax" - there are a ton of guides across North America to dog friendly cities - and there's enough content on the site to fill a book - or a dog friendly map of the city - which would be really neat - and you could sell the map and make money that way.

The possibilities are endless.

Along with selling you the domain names charlieloveshalifax.ca and charlieloveshalifax.com I would also give you the following domain names (I'm a bit of a domain name whore)
dogfriendlyhalifax.ca
doggyhalifax.ca
halifaxdogs.ca
offleashhalifax.ca

So that's my pitch - if you are looking for something to consume you and a reason to go to all the local doggy events and have a ton of fun with your dog - you have just found it!  You can email me at dogkisser @ gmail.com - thanks!!!

The dog owners of Nova Scotia are watching, Stephen McNeil

(This is Neena - a rottweiller that is banned in several areas of Nova Scotia currently)

So a landslide happened last night for the liberals here in Nova Scotia - obviously the people here wanted something different and new to happen in the next four years in the political landscape and the people of Nova Scotia decided that the Liberal party was the group that they wanted to make that happen.

The dog owners of Nova Scotia want the Liberal Party to know though that we are tired of the status quo - and we also want to let them know that we will not let them do what the Liberal Party did to Ontario - bring bsl to the entire province.

We know that they have put out a statement saying they won't do that - but in previous statements they've said that they believe municipal governments should be able to write their own legislation - and in Nova Scotia - that's where most bsl lives - in municipalities bylaws.

The Municipal Government Act contains bsl - and all it takes to enact bsl is to write it into your town's dog bylaw - and BOOM - your dog is DEAD.  Right here in Nova Scotia.

And currently - the Liberal government is okay with that - because they think it's okay for municipalities to write their own legislation.

It's my personal assertion that bsl needs to be REMOVED from the Municipal Government Act - but for some reason no one seems to agree with me.  Go figure.

As well - just agreeing that they won't bring in bsl isn't good enough for this new administration when it comes to animal welfare - in the next four years - the issue of tethering dogs - funding animal cruelty properly - NEEDS to be addressed.

So Mr. McNeil - the dog owners are watching what the Liberal government is doing - and we are watching what a certain MLA from Guysborough-Eastern Shore-Tracadie is doing VERY VERY closely. You can bet on that.

And we look forward to working with your government, and creating win-win situations wherever we can.

I have made a TON of updates to my Charlie loves Halifax website

If you are a fan of my Charlie loves Halifax site - I have made a ton of updates - if you haven't been there lately - you should go check it out!

http://charlieloveshalifax.ca/ 

(this picture is Neena at Seaview park today - she's available for adoption by the way - see more at http://facebook.com/nochainsalllove )

Don't vote for Lloyd Hines on Tuesday, and why

I wish I would have been smart enough to have been the one who thought up the title for this blog post - but alas - it was suggested to me. I'm not the only one who wants Mr. Hines to not be elected this week don't you know.

We thought we'd give this one last push. As of the moment I'm writing this post 676 people have signed a Change.org petition that tried to get Lloyd off the ticket for the provincial election - the people lost that push - but hopefully the people will have their say on Tuesday and not elect him to the Nova Scotia Provincial Legislature.

And here is why.

If he has as little respect for a species of animals called dog as he does for humans - we are in trouble. He wants to exterminate several breeds off the face of this earth - and he wants to not just have them removed from the very small sphere of earth that he was in charge of - the municipality of the district of Guysborough - he wanted to have them banned from the whole of Nova Scotia - which he almost did in 2008.

In 2004 in a CTV article he actually said -

"I don't want to be the warden of the Municipality of Guysborough and have to go to the funeral of some kid who was eaten."

If he's willing to talk with such catastrophic language about our companion animals when there has never been any child "eaten", killed or mauled in the province of Nova Scotia - ever, ever, ever - how effective is he going to be as a provincial legislator?

Is he going to be like Henny Penny all the time? Spending all his time with his little feet running around going "the sky is falling, the sky is falling"? When really we're just having a little rain shower - being ineffective and meaningless. That is not the legislator I want in my legislature, that's for sure.

And I certainly don't want anyone in my legislature who wants to ban and exterminate the companions that I have chosen to spend my life with - dogs - and that's what he wants to do.

He discriminates against dogs. What else will he discrimate against.

Lloyd Hines. Don't vote for him on Tuesday.

Here is some more information -

In 1995 Lloyd Hines lobbied for and passed breed specific legislation in the district of the municipality of Guysborough – banning pit bulls, with no grandfather clause built in.

Because the media paid virtually no attention to this issue, most residents of Guysborough were unaware of the new law in 1995 . Apparently without public support or, to the contrary, outrage, the municipality amended the by-law in 2004 to ban Rottweilers (the amendment contained a grandfather section to exempt Rottweilers already living in the Municipality). The ban on Rottweilers was passed after the New Brunswick attack that led to the death of a four year old child. Warden Lloyd Hines was active in pushing for these bills, and he threatened to push a breed specific ban through the Union of Municipalities – which he almost successfully did in 2008 – but because people in other areas of Nova Scotia know what happens when breed bans become law – Lloyd Hines failed in his bid to pass breed restrictions throughout the whole province.

Lloyd Hines is currently running as a Liberal Candidate in the provincial election in the riding of Guysborough Sheet Harbour in the October 2013 Election.

When Lloyd Hines was Warden of the District of the Municipality of Guysborough he made it a priority in his mandate to first ban pit bull dogs, and then add rottweillers to that ban.

When Lloyd Hines was first Vice President, and then President of the Union of the Nova Scotia Municipalities he made it a priority of his mandate to have breed restrictions passed throughout the whole province of Nova Scotia.

If he is elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia – what do you think one of his major priorities will be when he gets there?

Ideal Pet Show Today in Halifax

I went to the Ideal Pet Show today in Halifax and it was pretty good - there were a lot more exhibitors there than I thought there would be considering that it cost $1,000 to get a table plus you had to bring your own table and pay for wi-fi, plus plus plus and there were no deals for rescue organizations - in my experience if it cost $50 for a table at an event that has been a huge deal - so $1,000 is just out of the reach of any group that I know of - but I guess a lot of people figured that the people coming to the Ideal Home Show was worth the foot traffic of the table cost.

Wendy from Dogs of Pride was there - I love her and her products - she goes to all the dog shows and dog functions - she's such a hard worker! If you need something she'll get it for you - and she's also a master groomer with super high principles - so don't dare talk about shaving down your golden retriever on facebook or she will come after you! Today I bought some ear cleaner, doggie nail polish and a new freedom harness for Neena because she ate the freedom harness that I had already bought for her from Jollytails.

Homeward Bound Pound was there - which put me in two minds - so our tax dollars was paying for their table cost - I don't know what to think about that - on the one hand they were there so that they could adopt out dogs - they could also have been using our tax dollars to lobby the public to get the upcoming new contract for animal control sheltering too though, which to me is not a good use of my tax dollars - they are a private corporation that is paid for by our tax dollars, so it irks me that our tax dollars are going to pay for a table at this function. I don't know why it did, but it did. I know I will get flak for this paragraph, but I had to say it. I am such a negative nelly.

Jollytails and Tristan Flynn was also there - right at the front entrance - so I'm sure Tristan got to talk to tons to people about his positive training and huge doggy day care here in peninsular Halifax - he's also teaching a lot of seminars now, and will also teach them made to order - so if you have a group of people you want to get together - he will make you a lot smarter.

Pierre's Alley Cat Society was also at the front entrance - and Pierre made sure he got in the photo! He has been saving kitties for a long time now - and he is the best friend to feral cats - he was selling calendars, as he always is - his dream is to open a sanctuary - so you should give him some money so he can do that!

Spay Day Halifax's Linda Felix and her husband Gordon were selling Tuxedo Stan - who ran for Mayor of Halifax last year - and Earl - who's running in the provincial election currently - I own everything that I possibly can of their product even though I don't have a cat - Buttercup is my proxy cat because she's very cat like in her attitude.

Linda is changing the world in Halifax - she is amazing.

Another little group changing the world is Nova Scotia Lost Dog Network - sorry for the horrible picture but it's the only one I took - I've talked about them before - the idea of turning a stray dog into a lost dog is paradigm shifting in the rescue community - taking a dog from putting him in a shelter to putting him back home where he belongs - and these 2 ladies are doing that - and doing it in Nova Scotia - no one knows really that this is what this is happening - but THIS IS WHAT IS HAPPENING.

Elderdog Canada is growing the compassion in Nova Scotia to an unbelievable amount - I have met the lady who runs the organization - and their mission is so amazing you would not believe it - you must go to their website - and once you read what they are about - you will want to support them.

St John Ambulance Therapy Dogs not only has the cutest dogs around - they have the most helpful dogs - they go to places and provide therapy and help people, just like their name says - can we all just say aww. Awww.

And of course this is Driftwood - the puppy born with no back legs - I think he's having his surgery very soon if he hasn't already have it so he can be fit with prosthetic back legs and walk and run just like he's meant to - isn't he just the cutest?

K9 Orthotics and Prosthetics are going to give him his legs - they are a world-wide company based right here in Nova Scotia

On to some homies - Nicolle at the Chewed Slipper - doing what she loves, right?

And Jennifer at Down Home Dog Grooming on Cunard Street - keeping ever vigilant and staying beautiful - and keeping our dogs beautiful at the same time!