UPDATE 2/03/08 on the 19 Seeley Collies Rescued in Upstate NY
Statement by AWCA President Jean Levitt
The following, reported to me by AWCA volunteers over a period of three months, will introduce you to an unshaved, rough-coated tricolored female Collie, and exemplify the conditions in which she was held at the SPCA.
And now I tell you the story of this small, timid Collie girl with a wide, white blaze, that the AWCA volunteers called ....
"Princess", A Tri in the Middle
Princess was held in a cage on a cement floor with no bedding, in the main room on the first floor of the SPCA. In the cage immediately next to her was a spaniel mix who snarled and lunged and barked at the people who passed his cage and at the pit bull mix who was held a couple of cages away on the other side of Princess. The pit bull mix returned the snarls and growls and barks of the spaniel mix. Across from Princess was a row of "over 50 puppies" who were barking constantly. Princess was stuck in the middle of all these distressed dogs.
The volunteers reported when they first met Princess she was sweet, friendly, and stood on her hind legs to greet them. She was very "cuddly" but seemed "terrified" when she was taken outside in the snow to play in the exercise pen. She was "ouchy" and "tender" following spay surgery. Sadly, she still was not given bedding even after surgery.
12/09/07: One of the volunteers stated "I became worried because the fur on Princess' back and around her eyes was becoming short or broken. A thick mucous was running from her nose; dried mucous was encrusted all about her muzzle. She was very nervous and over-stressed. She couldn't handle the noise and the extremely distressed spaniel mix and pit bull mix on either side of her. She was beginning to decompensate. She had no joy."
12/15/07: The AWCA Volunteer Team Leader reported the following about Princess: "Missing fur.. looks even less enthusiastic".
12/22/07: The volunteers reported Princess "was dirty, had urine-soaked paws, dampness across shoulder blades, and she was not eating". They requested of the SPCA staff, as they had repeatedly, that Princess be moved from the middle of the extremely agitated spaniel mix and pit bull mix. They explained she was timid and needed a quiet place in the shelter. They told the SPCA staff she couldn't handle the stress of the main kennel room and the truckloads of barking puppies that kept arriving from the South.
12/30/07: Instead of standing up to greet the AWCA volunteers when they arrived, Princess just lay on the wet cement floor. According to the volunteer's report she "appeared depressed". The volunteers reported when they took her outside "she just wanted to be held". When they tried to put her back in the cage she was "resistant". AWCA volunteers told the President of the SPCA Board of Directors that Princess "needs a foster home," and one of our volunteers offered to foster her. Princess couldn't stand it at the SPCA any longer. The President of the SPCA Board replied "I don't know why she's still here--she has a home."
1/05/08: Princess was still at the SPCA. That was the day I confronted Executive Director Cathy Cloutier at PetSmart and pulled the AWCA volunteers from the SPCA. (see the first AWCA report dated 1/13/08)
Questions Abound
Why wasn't Princess allowed to have bedding, or perhaps a platform, even following her spay surgery, to keep her off the wet cement floor?
Why cage her in the din of the main room when she clearly couldn't handle it?
Why was this timid Collie girl held in the middle of two seriously agitated dogs, who kept all of the dogs in the main room in a constant unsettled state, including the truckloads of puppies which kept arriving from the South?
Why haven't the offers of exemplary care and rehabilitation by renowned experts, at no cost to the SPCA, been accepted? Why are these Collies still languishing in crates and cages at the SPCA?
Why has this situation been allowed to continue for 110 days?
Folks, walking out on the Seeley Collies held at the SPCA was the most difficult thing I have ever done in the over 50 years I have been involved in rescue.
Calmly,
Jean Levitt
Next week, I'll tell you another story about the Seeley Collies held at the SPCA
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