Guard dog's frozen body discovered in N.S.
Warning: this story contains graphic content.
Last Updated: Thursday, February 4, 2010 8:59 PM AT CBC News
A Nova Scotia man is demanding answers from the SPCA after he found a dog's frozen body near his home Wednesday night.
Joe Bona of Barrachois Mountain in Cape Breton said a guard dog for a local construction site was chained up outside in freezing temperatures.
"The dog was at the end of the chain, frozen to the ground, and I took sick to my stomach and I'm still sick to my stomach over what I seen," he told CBC News.
Bona said he first saw the dog nearly two years ago when he was walking his own dogs at night. He said he contacted the SPCA because he felt the bullmastiff did not have food, water or proper shelter.
"You can't save all the dogs," said Bona. "But there's something could have been done about that dog."
Kristin Williams, the executive director of the Nova Scotia SPCA, said inspectors had been checking on the dog regularly since 2007. The most recent inspection was just before Christmas last year.
Williams said the owner had been meeting the minimum standards of care for the animal.
Bona — who had gone to check on the dog because of the recent cold snap — said the animal deserved better.
"We found him curled up in a pile there," he said. "All the snow that was under him, he melted down into the dirt and that's where he met his demise. Right there, in the snow.
This bullmastiff was discovered frozen in the snow this week at a Cape Breton construction site. (Wendy Martin/CBC)"It's unexplainable that somebody would leave their dog in that situation knowing the temperatures and knowing the shape the dog was in."
Williams said the SCPA is waiting for an autopsy to determine the cause of death and whether charges are warranted.
Attempts to contact the owner of the property on Thursday were unsuccessful
To everyone who has ever sent an ugly email demanding to know who the &^% that I think I am trying to work for legislation to limit tethering .... to every politician... including my own MLA ... who has ever sidestepped suggestions that the practice of chaining dogs is both inhumane and a public safety issue .... for everyone who didn't want their name associated with an open facebook group to drum up support for anti tethering legislation .....take a good hard look at this.
We've been down this road before .... remember Po? http://www.animalrescuecoalitions.com/30078.html His before picture is on the cover of the facebook group, Break the Chain in Nova Scotia and bears no resemblance whatsoever to the pictures of this great guy AFTER substantial sums were spent by ARC to rehabilitate and heal this good dog. ( The subject of how these lovely folks do not define "healthy and treatable" by the dollar sign is a separate topic for another day )
The Cape Breton SPCA was 'checking' on him and 'couldn't' do anything for him either.
Chained dogs are like mice .... for every tragic story like this in the news there are untold numbers whose stories never see the light of day. How many more dogs have to die before the ugly emails stop, the MLA's grow a backbone and people stop looking the other way?
What time is it? Its time to recognize that every dog that dies on the end of a chain is also a victim of indifference.
The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing... - Albert Einstein
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