Publicity Pays Off Everytime : ))))

When I was checking the various sites around this morning, I was really happy to see that Sky ( http://catanddogmother.blogspot.com/2009/01/shaid-going-all-out-for-its-purrrfect.html ) has already been adopted.
Adoption promotions of all types do pay off for the animals. The Home for the Holiday's promotion that SHAID ran for its adoptables who had been with them the longest found homes for well over half of them (with Sky's adoption that makes it nine of the fourteen who are adopted )
In November, when both the Metro Shelter and S.H.A.I.D. were running their November is adopt a senior pet month programs, they found good homes for many of their seniors.
IMHO, if everyone knew how lovely mature pets are, rescues would always be 'running out' of them. But that is a topic for another post.
Pawsitive stories about pet adoption in the media do inspire good people to do good things. Many people depend on the media for information of all sorts. Every good article and feature is a like a snowball at the top of a hill ... it picks up public attention as it goes along.
Which is why articles such as the one in the last post are so very damaging and dangerous. Reporters have a responsibility to properly research the facts. You or I as individuals are free to express our personal opinions and biases. Reporters on the other hand, are supposed to present the truth. I challenge the reporter who wrote http://www.novanewsnow.com/article-288523-Empty-nest-puppy-lust.html to do her homework and work up another piece that honestly represents the wide variety of wonderful pets available for adoption in NS
And I thank the Herald for finding good ways to get pet adoption out there in the public eye.
I am an animal lover and my dogs and cats don't just vote.... they also influence the newspapers I buy.

Brindi Finally Makes it into the Herald ( and on BT too I hear )

From this morning's Herald

Owner set to make case for Brindi’s life

With her mixed breed dog on death row, woman says she will put ‘faith in the judge’By KRISTEN LIPSCOMBE Staff Reporter Mon. Jan 5 - 5:19 AM

Francesca Rogier should soon learn the fate of her furry best friend, who has been sitting on death row for over five months.
Ms. Rogier is set to make her case today on behalf of her beloved mixed-breed dog at the Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Halifax.
The East Chezzetcook woman has been fighting to save Brindi’s life since July 24, when animal control officers seized the five-year-old pooch for acting aggressively toward another dog.
Brindi has had a history of acting out and was supposed to be wearing a muzzle. Ms. Rogier has claimed responsibility for her pet’s past poor behaviour.
But Ms. Rogier, who adopted Brindi from Celtic Pets Rescue in June 2007, said she is a sweet and social dog who has never hurt anyone and simply needs more training.
"This is the first time she’s really lived in a home and had a real family of her own," Ms. Rogier said over the phone Sunday. "We went to baseball games, we went to people’s houses with tiny kids, we went all over and they all loved her."
Ms. Rogier said she has documents to prove that Brindi isn’t dangerous. Those include an assessment from a trainer that indicates Brindi is better behaved than most strays that are rescued from reserves, as well as files showing that usually the city only fines owners whose dogs attack other animals or people.
"I’m confident that we have all of our ducks in a row and I’m going to have to just put my faith in the judge," she said.
Ms. Rogier also launched an Internet campaign to help bring Brindi home, with a Facebook group, a blog and two online petitions garnering interest from pet lovers around the world. She and her supporters have raised close to $4,000 to help pay for mounting legal fees.
"It’s been extremely physically and emotionally . . . stressful," she said of spending several months trying to stop the city from destroying Brindi, who awaits her fate at the SPCA shelter in Dartmouth. "I can’t go for walks here because it’s too upsetting to walk without her," Ms. Rogier said.
Blair Mitchell, Ms. Rogier’s lawyer, said Sunday he and his client also hope to put an end to what he called a "terribly misconceived" bylaw.
"It’s one of the few bylaws in place, of many across the country, where there is a decision to kill a dog based on . . . an animal control officer, where it’s not reviewed by a court or by an appeal tribunal," Mr. Mitchell said.
If the court doesn’t rule in Brindi’s favour, Ms. Rogier’s lawyer plans to prolong the pooch’s life by filing an appeal, while Brindi’s owner will follow through on a wrongful seizure lawsuit already filed against Halifax Regional Municipality.
Municipal spokeswoman Deborah Story has said in the past that it isn’t the city’s "intention to be out there euthanizing dogs."
She said the municipality went beyond the requirements of the bylaw to give Ms. Rogier time to obtain a lawyer. The bylaw stops the city from killing seized animals while there’s an outstanding legal action.
And although her nerves and bank account are shot, Ms. Rogier said she’ll keep fighting to free Brindi.
( klipscombe@herald.ca)

Francesca Rogier, shown in her home last August, holds up a photograph of her pet mix-breed dog, Brindi, who is scheduled to be euthanized. (TED PRITCHARD / Staff / File)

A Shameful article in today's novanewsnow.com

From novanewsnow.com today
Empty nest, puppy lust by Wendy Elliott/The Advertiser View all articles from Wendy Elliott/The Advertiser
Article online since January 4th 2009, 7:00
Empty nest, puppy lust
When I was a younger woman I will admit I had baby lust. Still eager to cuddle babies, I look forward to being a grandmother (note to offspring: only when the right time comes). Meanwhile, I was hoping Santa Claus would bring me a dog for Christmas. I didn't write him a letter or sit on his knee at the mall, but I did drop lots of hints around the house over the last year.Since we lost our beloved mutt Whisper and our three kids essentially left the nest, I've been thinking about a new pet. Family reunites at Christmas and holidays, but then the nest feels empty. Why not a dog in our nest? We had one before, after all. We inherited our old dog Whisper when economically challenged friends moved to the greener pastures of British Columbia. They had rescued him from a shelter originally and then we rescued him. Eight years later, I liked having a dog around. Since we don't have a local animal shelter open, I started looking on dog shelter websites.Currently, I have four sites bookmarked to check regularly for our next best friend. I've figured out that most SPCA shelters in Nova Scotia are full of cats; the few dogs they shelter are usually German shepherd or Rottweiler mixes. Not that I'm prejudiced -- some of my best friends can act like attack dogs -- but our next dog has to be hypoallergenic. Whisper was some kind of hairy terrier mixture; he was quiet and didn't provoke allergic reactions. Just tumbleweeds of hair, upstairs and down. So hypoallergenic is a must. Hubby also specifies the next dog not be hyper-jumping-up or rudely yappy.Searched far afieldA good friend suggested I check the Moncton SPCA website because it is the largest in the region. I'm told that Quebec puppy-mill operators have moved into New Brunswick and that's why there are more dogs available there. I guess they’re all bilingual, too. In any event, there was one interesting dog on the site for less than a day. His name was James. Somebody grabbed a leash and got him. We need to move to Moncton.I even went so far as to call up a dog breeder in Hants County. She raises lovely little Havanese dogs, but she didn't anticipate having any puppies to sell for at least a year. My daughter dragged me into the pet store in New Minas and we both cooed over the puppies behind cages. She has been singing her favourite seasonal ditty, "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas", but I didn't start humming, "How much is that doggy in the window". I just can't see spending $1,500 to purchase a designer pooch - like a golden doodle - although I suspect that's what U.S. president-elect Barack Obama will be doing in 2009. Perhaps what I need to attempt is what he’s pictured doing on a recent New Yorker cover - interviewing a long line of pooches outside his White House door.Cats are nice, but dogs are true companions. They, like me, like to go for walks. They hunker down companionably next to my desk. They make the nest feel a little fuller. Santa, are you listening?
Good gracious .... I don't even know where to start with this article. First of course, as the webmaster for The NS Homeless Pet Project, I can assure this poor misguided soul that there are, at this moment, at least ten nice Little Dogs available for adoption in NS. Lovely little dogs that anyone would be lucky to share space with.
In the course of my work with the homeless pet project, I have seen many lovely dogs in the different SPCA branches around the province. Very recently, there were two tiny little dogs adopted out from the Kings County SPCA, which is the closest branch to the reporter who wrote this piece of ....
I am appalled that any member of the media would consider searching for a pet in a pet store.... but then clearly she has an affection and preference for the puppy mill product.
But the 'straw that breaks the back' in this article is the assertion that only a dog can be a true companion. Now I spent over thirty years in the military and I could, if I chose, curl anyone's ears with my language. I choose not to, in spite of the provocation.
At the end of the day, I feel sorry for anyone who so clearly values living breathing sentient beings only for their appearance .... for someone who is cruising online like that.
Good gracious... she might as well just go to Kijijji
For anyone who wishes to leave a comment, this article may be found online at http://www.novanewsnow.com/article-288523-Empty-nest-puppy-lust.html

With Freedom comes obligation

You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I am free. Clarence Darrow

I have it on good authority that there weren't forty concerned animal lovers at the public forum HRM held to discuss ByLaw A 300. Over a third of Nova Scotia's population ( 372,679 vs 938,310 ) live in the HRM with easily over 100,000 households within the HRM boundaries. Even if only ten percent of those homes were pet owners ( and the unofficial estimate is actually much higher) that was still an appalling display of apathy.

So you might ask why I, who live 'far from the madding crowd', would care about this. How does an HRM AC bylaw affect a middle aged grandmother living in the Valley? If you ask that, perhaps you are unfamiliar with the fact that in Nova Scotia, all the municipalities belong to the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities, http://www.unsm.ca/. This is the same group of folks who tried to sneak BSL in through the provincial legislature undercover of a municipal housekeeping bill, Bill 138.

On their own website, the UNSM clearly stated that one of its ongoing priorities is "UNSM/AMA sub-committee prepared changes to MGA to make dog owners more responsible for actions of their dogs. These changes will give municipalities more tools to work with to address dangerous dogs and their owners. Legislation anticipated to be introduced in Spring 2008."

Why don't we have that now? Clauses 6 - 8 of Bill 138 did not pass in the House. And why was that? Voter feedback is why. Strong networking at the grassroots level ( inspired by my friend Joan's diligent attention to the situation) had animal loving voters around the province emailing and calling their MLA's.

Which is exactly the same reason ByLaw A 300 made it to the gate. There was not enough strong voter feedback from the animal loving voters in HRM. And why was that?

Its easy to be apathetic about things that we don't feel concern us. For instance, when the crisis on Wall Street began, people without stocks simply shrugged and felt that wasn't their problem. When Canadians started losing jobs because of that, when credit became hard/impossible to get, then more people became concerned.

The truth is that we should be concerned any time we empower our politicians, bureaucrats or their employees to do anything on our behalf. Every law that is passed has the potential to affect us in some way.

For instance, people who consider themselves to be responsible dog owners might feel that penalties for dogs running at large might not affect them. And they will keep on thinking that right up until that one in a thousandth time when Spot slips off the leash or slides out the door or simply forsakes well patterned total recall.

People who have indoor only cats might not worry about 'running at large' cat bylaws until they personally discover what a determined and clever cat can be capable of. Nor would they even consider the desperate plight of feral cats that get caught in the AC 'running at large' web. Then of course when AC can 'catch and kill' feral cats, there is the whole other sticky wicket of enabling AC officers to use their own judgement. I'm sure you all remember the tragic case of Duckie, the elderly housecat who was killed within a couple of hours of being seized by AC.

The real crunch of the problem with Bylaw A 300 is threefold:

• Animal Control officers should never have been given the authority to kill any animal, owned or otherwise, and worse...


• there is too much room for interpretation in the definition of a dangerous dog and, even worse


• there is too much scope for complaints to be used to further neighbourhood vendettas

When I was a girl in school, our grade six teacher had us learn a poem by Pastor Martin Niemoller that changed my life

When the Nazis came for the communists , I remained silent; I was not a communist.
When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews , I remained silent; I was not a Jew.
When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.

Tomorrow,( Monday the fifth of Jan) , at Nine AM in Supreme Court (General Division) The Law Courts Building; 1815 Upper Water St.; Halifax, NS with Justice Duncan R. Beveridge presiding, Francesca Rogier will be having her day in court. Not because of Bylaw A300, but in spite of it. She has gone to great length and expense to have a judge, not an AC officer, make this life and death decision about her dog.

Remember that this is not even about one woman and her dog.... this is about the need to change such dangerous legislation. If we wish to keep living in a democracy, it is everyone's obligation to 'speak for those who cannot speak for themselves"

History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. Martin Luther King Jr

SHAID going all out for its purrrfect kitties

From this morning's Herald

Sky comfy, but needs new home

By BEVERLEY WARE South Shore BureauSat. Jan 3 - 6:48 AM

Shelter worker Kelly Campbell holds Sky, who has lived at SHAID in Bridgewater since August 2007. She is the only cat who came to the shelter in 2007 that has not yet been adopted. (Beverley Ware / South Shore Bureau)

BRIDGEWATER — Diva had a home for Christmas. So did Cagney, but unfortunately, home for Sky was still the animal shelter just outside Bridgewater.
The SHAID shelter has been Sky’s home for nearly 18 months now.
"She’s our only 2007 girl left," said Lynne Ware (no relation to this writer) , past president of the shelter society.
On New Year’s Eve, Sky sat alone, contentedly curled up on a cushion on a rocking chair under a window in the playroom.
"She’s fussy; she picks her friends," Ms. Ware explained. The cat Sky used to hang with has just been adopted, so the white and tabby cat is going it alone until she decides who out of the nearly one dozen other cats in the room is worthy of her attention.
The no-kill shelter made it its mission this year to find homes for its long-term residents — all of them cats. SHAID joined with 3,500 shelters in 17 countries to take part in Iams Home 4 the Holidays program.
"The goal of this campaign has been to find homes for our residents who have been here for so long," Ms. Ware said.
Ms. Ware is thrilled with the success of the program in Lunenburg County.
"We have adopted out more than half of our long-term residents," finding good homes for eight of 14 cats that had been at the shelter since 2007, she said.
"I am just really, really tickled at how many got adopted."
The program began in 1999. That year, homes were found for 2,563 pets. Last Christmas, more than 490,000 pets were adopted. The goal this year of finding homes for one million pets by Jan. 5. has already been surpassed. By Friday evening, the figure stood at 1,088,506.
There’s nothing wrong with the cats that have been living at SHAID for so long. They aren’t bad tempered, they aren’t sick. "I just think they get overlooked," Ms. Ware said.
Shelters often discourage people from getting pets for Christmas.
But Ms. Ware said: "I think we’re past the point of making blanket statements like that. People are carefully screened and whether they can adopt a pet at Christmas depends on their situation at home."
Some houses are not too hectic over Christmas, and the holiday season works well for those who are off work and can spend time at home helping their new pet adjust to unfamiliar surroundings. Adopters are also carefully screened so there are no impulse adoptions. Shelter staff were pleased to see two sets of sibling cats go to the same family, including Sooky and Sally, who came to the shelter a year ago at nine months of age.
Shelter worker Kelly Campbell is happy to see the cats go to good homes, and despite cleaning out 20 kitty litter boxes a day, she said she’ll miss them. Diva, who is deaf, would climb on her shoulder and purr loudly in her ear.
"She’s the most loving little thing, so personable."
Throughout this campaign, the shelter has absorbed half the cost of adopting a cat, which put the adoption fee at $75. It continues with its Seniors for Seniors program that allows a senior citizen to adopt an elderly pet for $50.
But because SHAID does not euthanize cats no matter how long they stay there, the adoptions have simply made room for more cats who are waiting to get into the shelter.
The playroom is full already, as are the two adoption rooms. And the quarantine room will likely be full within a couple of weeks as staff begin accepting homeless animals into the shelter, which could well be their home for the next year or more.
( bware@herald.ca)

For more pictures, see the next post and/or her Petfinder Bio, click on her name, Sky

For more info on how to adopt Sky, or any of the other purrrfect kitties who are part of the program, contact S.H.A.I.D. . The six remaining kitties may also be viewed on their own special page at the homeless pet site: http://www.nshomelesspets.com/cat07.htm

More Pics of Sky

Missing Great Dane

MISSING GREAT DANE

Molly went missing on New Year's eve from the Porter's Lake area of NS. Please contact her owner if you have seen her. Molly the 1 year old great dane was spooked by fireworks and bolted new years eve. There have been no sightings. Any help would be appreciated. Her owners Sandy and Darrin can be reached at 827-2952 Molly is harlequin with 1 brown eye and 1 blue eye. This photo is from late August. She's bigger now (about 110lbs) but it's the best picture we have of her markings. She's about 40 inches to the top of her head now. The eye in the black patch is brown. The rest of her head is white and the other eye is blue. She also has a small round patch of irritated skin on her left flank left over from an infection she had in the summer. It's round and about 2-3 inches in diameter. When she left she was wearing a cobalt blue, nylon collar with a red rabies tag for 2008. The phone number on the tag is for Eastern Shore Vets in the Porter's Lake Plaza.Her ears and tail are natural