A recent article “L.A. Shelter Dogs Transported to Canada: Rescue or Ruse?” has raised serious questions about Los Angeles shelter dogs being shipped to Canada in huge numbers.
The piece lays out valid questions like should homeless pets be transferred to other adoption locations and does transport guarantee ‘no kill’? The article asks if we are ‘really solving the problem or merely moving it around.’
Referring to mounting concerns over animal transports from Los Angeles specifically, “questions are also arising as to who is tracking the dogs that are being transported to Canada and elsewhere? Is this a ruse to try and to appear ‘no kill’? Once the pets are gone, dos the releasing agency demand to see records of what happened to them?”
These are huge questions. In regards to tracing the fates of these animals, a bigger and quite terrifying subject is addressed. Medical experimentation or laboratory research using live animals…dogs and cats…is prevalent in Canada.
“According to Animal Alliance of Canada, pound seizure (releasing shelter animals for research) is still legal in Ontario; and Quebec law remains silent on the issue, so “…contractors supply lost pet animals to research in the absence of any legal requirement to do so.” In other provinces where the law is silent on the issue of pound seizure but where researchers seek out lost pets, municipalities refuse to supply those pets for experimental purposes.”
“In 2007, 9,175 lost and abandoned dogs and cats were used in labs across Canada.”
The article cites great rescue groups like a Better Life Dog Rescue in British Columbia who are saving many lives, dogs who would have died in shelters. However, concern that the many are not finding their way to a good home is great.
“In the past few years there have been alarming reports of numbers of Pit Bulls taken to organizations in Canada. Canada does not seem to have a shortage of Pitties. In fact, Ontario has banned pit bulls, and concerns over dog fighting operations increase throughout the country. So what is happening to these difficult-to-place dogs that are brought in and left with the assurance to U.S. rescuers that “they are all finding homes”?”
Rescue work is hard. The number of animals dying in shelters is overwhelming. This article is asking simply if the influx of dogs being shipped en masse to Canada are all going to good homes. This is a valid concern considering the huge numbers currently being transported to Canada. The global effort on Facebook and beyond to save death row dogs is commendable and valiant. To discover these dogs have met a fate far worse than death is too horrible to even consider.
No one wants to feel badly and to see animals die daily in overcrowded shelters is extremely hard to take. What really is ‘rescue’ then? This piece asks whether transporting animals from a known fate to another state or country defines true rescue work. Is this 'rescue or just moving them around?' And what really defines 'rescue'?
The article concludes with a sound piece of advice. “Time to start serious follow up on Los Angeles animal-shelter transports?” A wake up call is in order and should be broadened to include all animal transports.
Horror stories emerge on a daily basis involving rescues and transports gone wrong. Not every person, sadly, is an advocate for animals, which calls for a better tracking system all the way around.
Every child has heard the story of the family pet given to the people in the country with a big farm. Growing up, we realize there really wasn’t a happy farm, but in reality, the dog was put to sleep. No longer children, we must address these questions as rational, ethical adults.
This article asks us to consider the risk of packing tons of animals on transport vans with no plan and simply hoping for the best. An in-place tracking system with follow up is in order and a very small price to pay for the assurance that the animal saved is really safe.
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