Animal Lovers Web Forum

This is the Laika Street Dogs site.
http://www.thelaikafund.com/
The rescued dogs live on a farm near North Bay Ontario. It is a fair way north. As you might imagine, the dogs arrive in terrible condition, many with horrific injuries. Some can be healed with love and good care. Some things can only be made better enough so the dogs can live comfortably.


The Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPCA)receives government money and handles cruelty investigations. They also run shelters.

http://www.ontariospca.ca/

They do a lot of good work. I can't say they don't. That wouldn't be fair.
They also can be very heavy handed in their approach.
There is a whole history of conflict between them and the Toronto Humane Society(where I volunteer). I won't go into it now.

They did have ring worm at on of their shelters and they "solved" it by closing the shelter and killing everything!!!! At least they tried. Some dogs just went "missing" right away and I commend their rescuers. Protests (even from government officials) and offers of veterinary help forced them to stop the killing. All the small animals had already been killed. Over 100 animals died and they had planned to kill more.

I just wanted you to have some background before I posted the article.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/09/...-paid.html

I am hoping the OSPCA does not dispose of any dogs before the hearing. Even if the OSPCA is proved wrong, you can't bring back a dead animal.
How tragic that these dogs who have suffered so much in their own countries are now being made to suffer again at the hands of those who are supposed to alleviate animal cruelty.

A very sad story. Thank you for the background. This sounds very much the heavy handed attitude (sometimes) of the RSPCA in the UK. A search of "RSPCA puts down animals" reveals a long list of sad stories, too.

Remind me to PM you the story of the OSPCA and the THS.

The OSPCA gets government money and that seems to make them think that public opinion doesn't matter. Public opinion is not always a bad thing. With animal cases, sometimes it is the will of the people. We the people certainly didn't want a shelter full of animals killed because of ring worm. (I had a ring worm outbreak in my rescue guinea pigs and I cleared it up with an $8.00 tube of anti fungal cream)

No one wants the rescue street dogs to be treated like this and we really don't want them to be killed. I am hoping that the publicity of a news article protects the dogs. The OSPCA will hesitate to do something so irreversible as killing the dogs. Now that people know about it they will be accountable for what they do. Something needs to change in the OSPCA mandate to limit their power and their needs to be some form of oversight. I would like to see them "audited" for their handling of cases.
Right now publicity is our friend. If I come across more information I will post it.

It is a shame that a group dedicated to animal welfare is sometimes the enemy of the animals they are supposed to serve.

Those poor dogs who were all killed because of ringworm! How very sad indeed. They would probably have been better off as strays. That is no 'animal rescue'!

I know, from you Catherine, that the Toronto Humane Society does some very good work, and so do many other animal charities.

How awful that the OSPCA don't take care of the dogs that Laika have rescued....

The Laika street dogs were being looked after just fine on the farm.
Of course they were not in good shape. They are all rescues that are damaged when they arrive an it takes time to fix them.

If they wanted to be useful the OSPCA would be supportive and help the dogs where they are being looked after. There was no need to remove them and there is absolutely no need to kill the dogs. They better not kill the dogs.

I still feel angry about the dogs being killed for ringworm at an OSPCA shelter. It was cats too and of course all the small animals were killed first.

We need to hold the various SPCA groups accountable.

Of course it takes some time, and good treatment and feeding to build up the dogs' strength again after trauma. I can't understand why the OSPCA had to interfere. Surely they could understand that? I can't help wondering why -if the Laika farm could give evidence that the dogs were being cared or/ given veterinary care etc -the dogs had to be seized by the OSPCA? (and abandoned to a worse fate.)

And as for Ringworm....well it makes no sense to kill any animal because it has Ringworm. That would be similar to a human being killed because they had mouth ulcers or something! That is definitely some kind of malpractice in my opinion.

There were public protests about the ringworm killings. It was a stupid decision. Yes it was easier to kill all the animals and clean the shelter and then reopen. BUT IT WAS NOT THE RIGHT DECISION!

I don't think any shelter will ever do something like that again. The public reaction was strong. People picketed outside the building. It was all over the news. That was some years ago. Social media is more powerful now so the reaction would be even stronger.

I understand that some of the dogs immediately went missing when staff and volunteers were told what was about to happen. People grabbed dogs and went out the back doors with them. Those people knew what was the right thing to do.

I don't think to highly of any vet who would do the killing in a case like this.
Shame on any vet who would kill the Laika Street Dogs.

As a person who rescues damaged pets, I really feel for the people involved. I wouldn't want the OSPCA anywhere near my place. I can't imagine what they would think of Jake Krinkle Snake.