The London Sanctuary is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit canine rescue organization based in Baker County, Florida. Launched in 2010, TLS serves northeast Florida, but also outreaches into other areas and specializes in rescuing and re-homing elderly and at-risk dogs, particularly so-called “bully breeds” and hounds.
Jay Cannaday is founder and president of the London Sanctuary. A liberal arts graduate of Northeast Missouri State University (now Truman State University), he relocated to northeast Florida in 1982 and moved to Baker County in 2004. In this interview, he discusses the experiences that led him to dog guardianship and how they became a lifelong mission to rescue dogs in need.
Why dogs?
Dogs don't judge. They have no expectations of perfection or competence; they don't care if you're smart or athletic, talented or good looking. They just want love and attention and there are no strings attached.
When did you become a dog guardian, and could you share some memories about the dogs that have been a part of your life?
Shortly before I got married in 1985, I bought my now ex-wife a Japanese Chin from a pet store in a mall. I didn't have the first clue what a puppy mill was. Frankly, I never cared much for that dog; he was quite warped mentally and was much more bonded to her than he was to me. After several years of nagging for a big dog for me, we agreed to start looking. I wanted, at the time, a Great Dane or a basset hound. We had a house with a big fenced-in back yard — no leash walking necessary. One Sunday we were running errands and kept passing somebody selling Dalmatian puppies out of the back of a Toyota 4-Runner in a vacant lot. (This was in 1993, at the height of one of the Dalmatian manias inspired by the re-release of, I think, the original Disney 101 Dalmatians movie.) She kept nagging me to stop and look at the puppies, and I kept saying, "No, I don't want a Dalmatian." Guys will get this: After a couple hours of her nagging, I relented and said, "We'll stop and look at them, but we're not getting one!" Well, I rode home with a shy little girl in my lap; she was so nervous she peed all over me. I knew from that moment she was MY dog. I knew absolutely nothing about Dalmatians and even less than nothing about backyard breeders. If I walked in the room and London was on the couch with the wife, it was obvious — she'd look at my wife, look at me, and then immediately hop down and come over to my recliner and join me, much to the wife's disapproval. When the marriage tanked just over a year later, that Dalmatian puppy — my London — kept me going; she forced me to get up in the mornings to take care of her and go to work. When I had to find an apartment because I could no longer afford our house, the only significant criteria I had was that they allow me to keep London. Not keeping her was not an option. I lived in a very substandard, crime-riddled apartment complex for two years simply because they didn't care that I had a 55-pound Dalmatian living with me.
When and how did you become involved in rescue and fostering?
After the divorce, I was broke, bored and depressed. A local no-kill shelter was featured in a segment on the evening television news one night, begging for volunteers, and I figured that would be a good way to meet some new people and kill some time. Ultimately, I was there for over five years and adopted a senior redbone coonhound from them, as well as a senior Dalmatian.
What do rescuing and fostering entail?
Re-homing is the ultimate goal of any rescuer, I think — to take a dog (or a cat, but we work 99 percent with dogs) that for whatever reason has no home or cannot stay in that home any longer, and find a loving, caring, protective, lifetime-committed home for him. Adoption events can occur at most any public place or event, festival, fair or similar. We bring our "stuff" — forms, tables, chairs, tent if need be, fundraising sales items, and anywhere from four to fifteen dogs that need new homes, and sit there and talk to people and show off our dogs. Sometimes we meet new volunteers that way, or get donations, or simply network with other rescuers who may not have met us yet. Transport is exactly what it is. When someone in another city or state wants to adopt one of our dogs, we'll endeavor to create a relay run to get that dog to them — after normal approval processes are followed, naturally. Often, a transport works in the opposite manner, too. We'll answer a plea to save a dog in a shelter far away and work up a relay to get that dog to northeast Florida to safety in a foster home. We've pulled dogs from Louisiana, California, Alabama, Georgia, West Virginia, North and South Carolina and Virginia, in addition to Florida, and we've adopted dogs to Louisiana, Illinois, Tennessee, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts. We have a wonderful coven of transport ladies who work very hard to make these over-the-road marathons successful. It's all a matter of someone wanting a dog they see, for whatever reason — reminds them of a childhood dog, a special look in a certain breed, whatever the reason. Once approved, we'll do whatever we can to ensure they can get that dog.
How did this lead to The London Sanctuary?
I had worked for and with several other nonprofits since the mid-1990s, and as so often happens, I felt I could do certain things better than the last group I was working with. Plus, they were breed-specific. I love most breeds and found being a coordinator for a breed rescue somewhat limiting.
What is the significance of the name?
Approximately 50 percent of the dogs we have are "sanctuary" dogs — that is, care-for-life dogs who, for whatever reason (behavior, breed, looks, age, medical conditions or just bad luck), will likely never be adopted to the general public. This doesn't make them any less deserving, any less loving or special, so they'll stay with us as our own and be loved and cared for as we love and care for our own dogs. London was the name my wife and I picked out for that first Dalmatian bought out of the back of that Toyota in 1993. She passed in 2008, and I started thinking about going off on my own in 2009. It came to fruition in mid-2010.
Please explain what a shelter does, how they do it, and why they do it. Also, please distinguish between kill and no-kill, because many people do not understand that “shelter” does not mean a nice place for the dog to spend the rest of his or her days.
The vast majority of shelters nationwide are simply warehouses for unwanted dogs. Animal Control agencies are more of a law enforcement agency than a compassionate "re-homing" facility; that sort of thing is a sideline to most of them, who see themselves tasked with ridding the community they serve of unwanted, dangerous or injured animals. There are many shelters nationwide that bill themselves as "no-kill shelters." That is, they claim to not euthanize for space reasons. Most of those only take their dogs from municipal shelters, very few of which claim to be no kill. (No open admissions shelter, which a municipally run shelter must be by law in most jurisdictions, can legitimately claim to be no kill, as they must take every sick, injured or otherwise unadoptable dog that is offered to them or picked up by an Animal Control officer or the police department.)
The tendency is to blame Animal Control and shelter staff for euthanizing dogs and cats, when in fact the problem lies with negligent humans and animal overpopulation. Please offer some insight about these issues, including professional breeders.
There will always be a need and demand for breeders, and if done right, I don't have a philosophical issue with breeders — “done right” being that they rescue their breed of choice as well as breed more of that breed, screen their adopters, have a "return to breeder" clause in their contracts, and that their breedings are ONLY done to improve the breed, i.e., working toward eliminating genetically prone diseases, such as deafness in Dalmatians. However, those breeders who are only in it to make a quick buck — selling their puppies from an ad on Craigslist, out of the back of a pickup truck in the local Walmart parking lot, or at a flea market — are lower than pond scum in my opinion.
Please explain some of the terminology associated with shelter dogs: vetted, sponsorship money, rescue and foster. We see these terms in cross-postings, but some people may not understand what they mean.
Vetted: shots, de-worming, spay or neuter, other medical issues tended to as necessary. Sponsorship money: frequently, kill-shelter volunteers and advocates will pledge or donate money to the rescue group that pulls (saves) a particular dog they feel is highly deserving. Rescue groups, being perpetually underfunded, appreciate this very much, as it enables them to pull a dog they might not otherwise have been able to pull, since because of the sponsorship they can afford either the pull fee (some shelters charge rescue groups to take their dogs; others do not) or the basic vetting on that dog (required by law in some states, optional in others, but always necessary regardless of the legalities). Rescue simply refers to the group or individual that ensures that the animal leaves the shelter on a leash instead of in a trash bag. It's a broad term, but it boils down to saving a life. A foster is that person who takes temporary custody of an animal that has been rescued until such a time as that animal is placed in a permanent home. Foster homes, with most rescue groups, have first right of adoption, too.
How has advocating for shelter dogs changed over the years?
Social media has certainly made a difference in the ability to network. That it certainly has, and it's a blessing as well as a curse. Rescue groups’ "reach" is far greater, hence the need for more transporting, and it's done great things for fundraising abilities. Networking is always good; we have gotten donations from as far away as Germany at times. It's a curse in that you become aware of far more needy animals than you would ever have been in the days pre-Facebook, it makes you work that much harder to save more animals, and it makes you that much more frustrated that you can't save more than you already do.
What is the most difficult aspect of your work and what is most rewarding?
Intellectually, the worst part is dealing with ignorant people who think that spay and neuter "ain't natural" or "ain't God's will" (Is it God's will that 800 dogs an hour are put to sleep every day of the year in the USA? I doubt that very much!), or those who think, "It's just a dog, who cares?" The most rewarding for me is to get an e-mail or a phone call from someone who adopted one of our dogs in the past, telling me how much they love that dog and that they can't imagine ever not having him in their life. That makes it worth it!
How many dogs are presently available for adoption through TLS, and what can you tell us about these dogs?
We typically have between fourteen and twenty dogs listed for adoption on Petfinder.com (zip code 32040, if you'd like to search their site), plus another five to ten waiting (usually for medical reasons) to be listed, as well as our fifteen to twenty Sanctuary care-for-life dogs. Most are hounds of one sort or another, with a smattering of bulldog types and a few others that have come our way. They were all pulled from kill shelters, mostly from the Jacksonville, Florida, area, or were strays one of our volunteers found on the road somewhere.
What are some simple things that everyone can do to help shelter dogs and dogs in general?
Everyone can do something, whether it's manning a table at an adoption event and talking to the public about things such as vaccinations, spay/neuter, the wonders of coonhounds, general breed information or the availability of community resources, transport, doing home visits or background checks, networking available dogs, fundraising, grant writing, desktop publishing. All are important facets of a successful rescue group.
Please include all contact and donation information for TLS.
We can be reached at The London Sanctuary, P.O. Box 1914, Glen St Mary, FL 32040. Our website is www.thelondonsanctuary.org, and our e-mail is londonsanctuary@aol.com.
On Facebook: TheLondonSanctuary
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