Outrage in Arkansas: 8 Puppies Are Dumped Inside Plasticware

Seven of the Dachshunds were taken in by Rocky Ridge Refuge, while another has been adopted.

Ever notice how plasticware reproduces quietly in your cupboards so that your kitchen is practically bursting with unmatched lids and containers and then, one day, when you really need it, it has suddenly vanished into the universe? It's your fault. You distributed it over time to the houses of your friends as you departed from their potlucks saying over your shoulder, "Oh, just return the plasticware when you've finished the casserole."

We hope the folks who dumped a pile of puppies in a big plastic container behind a church in Arkansas never get their storage vessel back and that their cupboards will be forever cursed with ill-fitting lids because really, who does that?

First of all, spay and neuter your dogs, for puppies' sake! Second, don't leave the resulting offspring in a sealed plastic death trap! If you have to get rid of them, fine, but there are shelters for that.

Fortunately, the eight Dachshund puppies were taken in by the church they were dumped at and handed over to Rocky Ridge Refuge, a rescue organization in Arkansas that provides sanctuary for all manner of animals. One of the puppies was adopted by someone at the church, and the remaining seven are  in the care of Rocky Ridge, which aims to find the puppies good homes.

In the meantime, Rocky Ridge's resident dog mama, Butterbean, is helping take care of the pups.

Photos via the Rocky Ridge Facebook page

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Home Neutering of Dogs in Canada Sparks Outrage

The practice is horrific. The dogs suffer. Yet people still attempt to save a few bucks by neutering their dogs at home.

You wouldn't think that an SPCA would have to speak out pleading with people to not neuter their dogs by wrapping industrial rubber rings around their testicles, causing intense pain and suffering. But that's exactly what happening in Canada. 

Kaley Pugh, manager of protection services at the Saskatchewan SPCA, is fielding reports from vets about the practice, and she's had enough. She told CBC News, "This is not an acceptable practice in dogs. They really do suffer a lot when you do this to them."

"The photographs I've seen are quite shocking," said Pugh. "Animals with significant wounds and bleeding and rotting tissue still attached to the animal."

Pugh says the SPCA could start to prosecute owners, according to CBS News. "Owners who put the health and safety of their dogs at risk through home neutering practices may be charged for violations of the Animal Protection Act and/or the Criminal Code."

Apparently, the practice is done on farms to livestock, using "elastrator rings" (which is itself controversial). Some dog owners think the practice is transferable to dogs. It is not. It's torture. Aside from the extreme pain, the dogs lick and chew the area, causing intense trauma.

Dr. Terri Chotowitz of the Cumberland Veterinary clinic in Saskatoon told CTV News, "There's no way you can get that [elastrator ring] tight enough without causing a lot of discomfort for the dog. I can only imagine how much chewing and licking and trauma they are doing to that area, trying to get that off. To use an elastrator ring is terrible and it doesn't make sense on any level."

Don't think for a minute that this is Canada's problem alone. Last April, a dog named Rocky, suffering and bleeding, was dropped off at a vet in Billings, Mont.

"It initially looked like somebody had surgically removed the testicles on that dog themselves," executive director of the Yellowstone Valley Animal, Chris Anderson, told TKVQ News. "As we started to do more surgery, we realized that we ... we found a rubber band ... and that maybe they had actually tried to band the testicles on an adult male dog. And the dog, literally, chewed its testicles off."

Both Billings and Saskatchewan, incidentally, offer low-cost spay/neuter services. 

"I wouldn't even call it neutering. It's torture. It's absolutely torture," Daphna Nachminovitch, senior vice president of PETA's Cruelty Investigations Department, told the Huffington Post. 

PETA is offering a $5,000 reward leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone who attempts home neutering. 

"I want people to understand that this is illegal," she said. "And to make sure there are no copycat cases."

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Outrage growing over sled dog slaughter

On Monday, Canadian radio station CKNW discovered and reported on details of the gruesome killing of around 100 sled dogs by the manager of Outdoor Adventures Whistler in British Columbia.

The descriptions are graphic and upsetting, and I’ve wrestled with how much to share here. I’ve chosen to give you links instead of quoting the most disturbing material, because it’s taken me more than 6 hours to write this post — I  keep having to stop and get a grip on myself. Please click with caution.

Outdoor Adventures Whistler claimed through spokesperson Graham Aldcroft that they had no idea their employee, identified as Robert T. Fawcett, was going to gun the dogs down in such a brutal fashion. They thought they’d be “euthanized” in a humane manner if no homes could be found for them.

Fawcett did attempt to get a veterinarian to kill the dogs by injection, but the vet he asked refused to kill a hundred perfectly healthy dogs. Fawcett  also stated some attempt was made to find new homes for the dogs, but without success.

All this came to light because Fawcett filed a workers compensation claim with local authorities for post-traumatic stress symptoms related to the killings. From the Montreal Gazette:

In a Dec. 27, 2010, posting on a website forum for trauma sufferers, a Whistler resident named Bob Fawcett, an award-winning dogsledder, wrote: “I’ve had a pretty horrible ordeal and actually figure I may be able to be a good sounding board for others … and it has pretty much destroyed my soul.”

Fawcett’s claim was approved, and he remains an employee of the company.

I have no problem with working dogs in general nor sled dogs in particular. I think dogs who are doing the work for which they’re bred are among the happiest dogs in the world, certainly happier than far too many bored, overweight, under-challenged couch pups.

But there is no breed of dog that was bred to be gunned down, a hundred at a time, by a single unqualified worker, while 200 other chained dogs watched and listened. That is an obscenity.

When I was at the North American Veterinary Conference last month, I attended a number of presentations that made reference to “The Five Freedoms.” (Our own Ericka Basile wrote about one of them here.)

The Five Freedoms grew out of a 1965 UK government investigation into inhumane farm practices, which resulted in the 1967 formation of the Farm Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (now the Farm Animal Welfare Council). After going through a number of incarnations, the “five freedoms” became these:

Freedom from thirst and hunger – by ready access to fresh water and a diet to maintain full health and vigour.Freedom from discomfort – by providing an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area.Freedom from pain, injury, and disease – by prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment.Freedom to express normal behavior – by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal’s own kind.Freedom from fear and distress – by ensuring conditions and treatment which avoid mental suffering.

Today, those freedoms are being applied to all populations of animals held, kept, sheltered, and worked by humans, from animal shelters to ranches to family farms. They are not honored everywhere nor even in most places where people keep animals. But they are a set of standards being more widely adopted every day, and against which there is no legitimate opposition.

One of the ways in which the last freedom is always interpreted is that animals should never be killed, slaughtered, euthanized — use whatever term you like — in the sight or hearing of other animals. And the animals who are dying need to die in a way that’s swift and as free of stress as possible.

We can argue all day long about the nuances and terms of these standards. I’ve had those debates already, and I’m sure I’ll have a hundred more. But every organization or business, from animal shelter to farm, that doesn’t live up to those standards is going to find itself increasingly expected to do so, or face consequences ranging from legal penalties to greater regulation to criminal charges.

If the sled dog tour industry wants to hold its head up for one more day, if it wants to continue to exist even beyond this winter, it needs to not just denounce this brutal action, but make sure the “culling” of its retired dogs is handled by adoption, sanctuary, and creative re-homing, not by the bullet nor even by the needle.

At least one Canadian sled-dogging guide agrees. From the Toronto Globe and Mail:

“Any dog sledder who culls dogs at the end of a season should be culled himself, as far as we’re concerned,” said Paul McCormick, head dog sledding guide for Wilderness Adventures, a Toronto-based company that runs dog-sledding trips through Canada’s Algonquin Park.

“You don’t go out and cull dogs,” he said. “We’re part of the largest dog sled operation in the world with 40 dogs and we never cull dogs. We retire them, they’re adopted … there are a lot of alternatives.”

The veterinarian who refused to kill those dogs was right, even if their ultimate fates may haunt him. All our activities on this planet need to be sustainable, and if we bring sled dogs, or any other animals, into this world, they’re our responsibility.

Our business plans, our economic models, can’t be based on an exit strategy drenched in animal blood, that becomes the stuff of human nightmares.

Photo from a CTV.ca report.

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