Doolittle's Animal Outreach

https://www.change.org/p/canada-s-justice-and-attorney-gene

ATLAS WAS REUNITED! https://www.kelownanow.com//VIDEO_Footage_of_woman_takin/

Carl is a husky mix and about 2 years old He needs an experienced owner who will be patient with him as he has had a traumatic past and can be quite fearful. He... is missing an eye as a result of a negative past. Carl is trusting, compliant, submissive, and happy. If he is meeting people in a quiet, calm way, and is given time to approach them on his own, he will accept treats and pets from them. When he has been introduced in a manner that makes him afraid, he can reacts negatively and for this reason he must meet people on his terms. He must go to a home without children. He seems to enjoy the company of older children, but younger ones make him frightened. When Carl is afraid he goes and hides. Once he feels ready, he comes back and lounges around. A quiet, predictable home and routine will be ideal for him. When he comfortable in his surroundings he is calm and relaxed but in new situations, with loud noises or other scary things can become reactive and fearful very easily. When introduced properly to other dogs, he is fine. He does have some leash reactivity meaning he lunges and barks at other dogs when out on walks. His owners will have to commit to managing this behaviour. He also is not a dog park type of dog therefore a fenced yard for adequate exercise is a must. He has never been around cats. Overall, Carl is a lovely boy who just needs a quiet, predictable home with patient owners who understand his specific issues.

Attention dog owners and lovers in BC/AB. Please read and share if you wish to warn dog owners of the practices at SPIRIT OF THE NORTH in Salmo BC. I am not tel...ling you which ethics to have as a pet owner. Some people are ok with dogs living on a tether, and if you are one of those people, this post isn't for you, and I don't care to debate. This is my opinion on something I feel is wrong. I do not wish to control the actions of others, but to warn of a business that portrays itself as a hero while exploiting dogs and owners. It's been nearly 3 painful months of bottling this up, waiting for the spca to take the action that they promised they would, so that I didn't have to write this. Turns out, If dogs are fed, the SPCA doesn't do anything, even if they are denied any sort of quality of life. Even if a business is falsely claiming to provide services that they don't. I understand that the SPCA runs things this way because it is difficult to prove distress if an animal is fed- But 80 dogs on a short tether in the care of an 80 year old man should be an obvious case of distress, in my opinion. Feeling powerless, this post is my last resort to try and deter good owners from associating with and supporting this business. In December I really wanted to run some dogs, being a jogger. So I asked Spirit of the North if I could volunteer there, under the impression it was a rescue. He said yes. I packed a bag and started spending a night or two there a week. He is 80 years old, he has 80 dogs. Over half are sled dogs, many of which he has bred himself. Many are "rescue therapy dogs" that he has taken on and promised to correct behaviour, charging people 60$ a day for this. This therapy is getting his two 18 year old volunteers (one who has never worked with dogs) to chain 8 dogs at a time to an old semi trailer to be pulled with a snowmobile, forcing the dogs to run. Doing 2 "therapy runs" a week, for half an hour, with 8 dogs, is not exercising the 80 dogs tethered on the property. They need real exercise and one on one time. If they are aggressive, they need professionals working with them. I started asking the german volunteer about her experience at the operation. She said In her 6 months there, I was the only one who had actually walked the dogs one on one. He charges 60$ a day, =1800$ a month per dog, and people pay it, for therapy that does not happen. He claims to do these "therapy runs" 5 times a week, but she said it usually happens about twice. For only 8 dogs. Many of these dogs have been abandoned by owners (horrible owners) upon their behaviour worsening in the conditions. The owner sits on his computer smoking cigarettes all day. Every day. At first I thought I just came out on a "lazy" week for him. Then as I came out more, I realized he wasn't interacting with the dogs AT ALL (literally, not at all unless someone had paid for a sled dog tour) The 2 girls are so tired after feeding 80 dogs that they have no time to spend with them. I understand that some dogs who have committed level 3+ bites have no rescues that will take them. However, In my opinion, tethering an aggressive dog or putting them in a small pen nearly full time and then claiming them "rehabbed" and safe to be adopted out after not working with them at all is putting both the adoptive family and the dog at risk. There are also dogs there who are so aggressive that they cannot be worked with or even taken out to go on the "therapy runs" and I fear they will spend their entire lives in a tiny 10x10 pen at this facility. You can decide for yourself if this is fair. Dogs CAN be rehabbed, but he does not run a facility with the professionals needed to this. He has adopted dogs out who have bitten their new owners in the first day and been returned. The first time I went out to the business he had a bad bite on his hand from a dog he claimed to rehab, who bit the new owners on the first day, and then bit him upon being returned. The 60$/night per dog feeds his sled dogs who are tethered full time, with the exception of the few dogs who get to go out on the handful of expensive sled tours he manages to sell in the winter months. The volunteer said she had never seen most of the "retired" sled dogs off of the tether in the 6 months she had been there. I imagine they have not been off of the tether in years. Out of 60 sled dogs, 2 know their names. They have never been socialized, they have always existed on the tether, or for very short minutes in a running harness. I personally asked the owner if they have ever ran free in some kind of big pen, and he said no. The website she had discovered the volunteer opportunity on only wrote that it was a "sled dog operation", not a "dog behaviour facility" and every foreign volunteer that has come to work has never worked with dogs, and has been bitten multiple times, most requiring hospital attention. I have written this to discourage the public from endorsing his facebook page, which has gathered many dog-loving followers with misconceptions about the business (go figure, he's on facebook 24/7) and to remind everyone that if you need to surrender your dog, PLEASE go to a reputable rescue that fosters, NOT A SLED DOG OPERATION. If you think your dog needs training from someone else, you're wrong. You need to be trained on how to train your dog. Sending them away won't solve your problems. Also, if you're reading this, owner, and think you can take some legal action for me sharing photos of your property, I had written permission via facebook messages with you to be there on the days the photos were taken. If you don't want photos taken, you need to get your volunteers to sign a contract promising they wont take photos of your shitty operation. I checked with a lawyer.

https://theprovince.com//26418658-aa9e-4719-afd0-80acfce76