There is a long standing feud between the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPCA) and the Toronto Humane Society (THS). This feud came to ahead when the THS were allegedly caught off guard and five members of their staff were arrested when the OSPCA and the Toronto police raided their River St. location [last week].
Charges have been laid against the society’s president, Tim Trow, and four other members of their staff. The charges allegedly include conspiracy to commit an indictable offense, cruelty to animals as well as obstruction of a peace officer.
Pretty hefty allegations for a centre that insists they’ve done nothing wrong.
The two organizations have been on opposing sides for ages regarding euthanasia. The Toronto Humane Society typically takes a rehabilitation approach, while the OSPCA is not opposed to euthanasia for any reason, and use it at their discretion.
For those that are unaware: the OSPCA is the governing body over Ontario animal welfare organizations.
Let me paint a little picture for you:
A dog is in the backyard of its home, a fully fenced lot where two young children are playing on the other side of the fence. They are taunting the dog; poking it with sticks through the chain link, barking at it, running back and forth, yelling, and throwing a ball at the fence.
With a toss, the ball is launched over the fence and one child begins to climb that fence to retrieve said ball. The dog, now aggressively chases that ball which was used to taunt him only minutes ago. It lunges for the ball, at the same time as the child, and latches on to his arm instead of the ball.
No one was there to see the incident or the behaviour that led up to the child jumping over the fence.
The dog is now aggressive and deemed a danger to society.
It happens all the time, people.
But! because of the different outlooks these two organizations have regarding the issue of euthanasia, the dog now faces two completely different fates – depending on which one he is surrendered too.
pixielation says:
Seems crazy that a dog in its own backyard can be in the wrong for attacking a trespasser.
November 29th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Cathy says:
There is way more to the story – you can read the ongoing update of the investigation on this site and see the revealing Draper report published by Globe and MAil about THS horrors here and here…
heartbreaking….
November 29th, 2009 at 9:56 pm