Five more from the Quebec puppy mill bust last week. All young, all instinctively joyous when people approach, though God knows why after what people have put them through.
One beagle is calm, gentle.
The other is kinetic until I pay attention to it and then it melts and all is well.
One Cocker Spaniel is playful.
The other one is quiet but determined to be near a person, to approach and seek comfort from anyone who passes by.
Then there is the Shitzu who is like a silly little toy, legs moving so fast they look like a blur but still only barely keeping up to my walking pace.
I wonder if the people who will eventually come and take these dogs home will know what they have saved them from?
James from Toronto Animal Services was up in Montreal over the weekend to check out some of the other dogs taken from the seizures. He immediately noticed the big dogs, the Great Danes, Mastiffs, Labs, Irish Setters but there were also lots of little lap dogs, lots of everything, Boxers, Pit Bulls. Even with all the fostering help various rescues and shelters have been offering, the Montreal SPCA still has over 400 dogs under its care at the moment (this includes about 100 dogs which were there even before the puppy mill seizures).
The illicit dog trade in Quebec is completely out of control. Attempts to curb it have been muddled by the usual folly of human politics combined with lack of will. Here's an article in The Toronto Star about that sad state of affairs.
Addendum: Here's the video report hosted by The Globe and Mail. (When I tried it, it was loading up pretty slow).
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2 comments:
When will people, especially politicans, learn that industry self-regulation is always either farce or tragedy. The commonly used comparison to a fox guarding chickens is all too apt. Putting the breeders on the Anima board was and is directly responsible for the lack of proper oversight.
Can you spell conflict of interest?
Anima Quebec, that province's animal law enforcement authority, seems more like a convergence of interests - that of big business, puppy mills and taxes to government coffers.
The relationship between Anima Quebec, the SPCA, Berger Blanc (the company which won the Montreal animal control contract) and various privately owned pounds is all very confusing and there's lots of bad blood. Here are another couple of articles that attempt to explain the situation:
http://www.rapt-lfpn.org/en/article_003.html
and
http://www.montrealmirror.com/ARCHIVES/1998/061198/cover.html
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