A6 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, December 23, 1998

Dog awareness plea issued

Dear Sir:

1 became intrigued by a recent ‘pet of the week’ photo of
two German shepherds at the Kitimat SPCA. They were
purebred, had their shots, were fixed, microchipped, and
had registration papers. For only $20 they could be
adopted.

I drove to Kitimat. Neither dog came even close to the
breed standard description, and yet were registered and
sold as such, These sad specimens had been purchased for
$350 by someone obviously unaware of what they were
looking at. 1 asked to take one out to get a better feeling of
his temperament, He scurried and scrambled at the end of
his lead, oblivious to my quiet coaxings as knelt at his
side. When my husband’s foot slipped in the new snow,
the dog jumped back, bent his head and began urinating
uncontrollably as he cowered against me.

I voiced my concerns at the front desk and was informed
the previous owner had purchased them from a local
breeder. I thought back to when I, too, had been foolish
enough to buy a German Shepherd from a local breeder.
Do not get me wrong. I do not wish to include all breeders
in my negative description.

The female I had purchased was from a litter of 11. By
the time she was a year old, I had heard from two people
who owned her siblings that they had to put their dogs to
sleep as all they did when spoken too was urinate on them-
selves and cower, They were not displaying the tempera-
ment expected of a German shepherd.

My dog also displayed odd behaviours. When I talked to
another shepherd owner, [ was reassured this wasn’t a big
deal. A while later I was approached by a gentleman who
owned a beautiful male German shepherd from Germany
with the proposition that we should breed them.

Being 19 at the time, I didn’t have the sense to say no,
and was soon the proud owner of eight beautiful pups.
After they had all been placed in homes, I began receiving
calls. Five pups died within two months, having bled to
death. One owner was thoughtful enough to do an autopsy,

ee
CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD —

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revealing Hemophilia. I researched this, having never

heard of it in dogs, and found it was almost exclusively .

caused, in some breeds, by inbreeding or linebreeding,

A quick glance at my dog’s pedigree, and my heart sank.
Father to daughter, cousins to cousins. This technique is
not as bad as it sounds, if you are willing to cull your lit-
ters, and not sell for profit every pup you can pump out.
This type of breeding is not cheap; and takes years to
master. ] immediately spayed my female.

The two shepherds in Kitimat are from the same blood-
lines, Destined to be failures, unable to please any owner,
or lead happy lives. I do not know how to end this horrible
situation, except to plead to anyone interested in any
purebred dog to do your research and interview breeders.

I welcome any correspondence by anyone wishing to dis-
cuss this. I encourage anyone thinking about getting a dog
to look in the shelters, or wait till after Christmas, as the
shelter will be getting lots of Christmas puppies.

I did contact the Canadian Kennel Club, They said that
as long as both parents are registered, any pup, no matter
its quality, can be registered. They encouraged me to ap-
proach city council for a by-law to have breeders with
licences to conform to breed standards. Yeah, that will
happen.

Angela Burton, Terrace, B.C.

Wash your hands afterward

Dear Sir:

This is why I do not watch professional sports.

Two weeks ago a pamphlet advertising ethical funds
showed me a picture of a young child labourer asleep at his
work bench where he stitched together baseballs for a
living.

Today a major league baseball player has just signed a
contract for (US) $15 million a year for seven years.

Let’s just put this into perspective for a moment with the
help of a calculator — $15 million divided by 365 days a
year is $41,098.89. 1 checked, that’s 41K and change each
and every day of the year.

That's just about what most people in Canada would feel
lucky to earn in one year, It would be nice to save a bit for

the kids’ schooling, maybe buy a house, take a vacation ©
etc. Extravagances ] know, but we are living in the devel-

oped world. Go one step further and think of the young

boy and his family in a country where the average income
is maybe a small fraction of what the pro-athlete receives

In Memoriam Gifts fund vital heart
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Terrace, B.C, V8G 4A2 ra

Anne Evans 638-1966

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for chucking the same kind of balls as they make. So much
for trickledown economics.

Anyway, divide the daily gross, (and it is gross in more
ways than one) by 24 hours and you get about $1712 for
every hour spent living and breathing. That’s more like it!
I recall making that much in one month which is at least
some common ground, eh? More calculator magic yields
$28.54 a minute that Joe Athlete is making.

Stay with me here, now it get’s tricky. Not only is your
pro athlete breathing and stuff but he also has to pee once
in a while. It takes just over 1.5 minutes for a decent pee, if
you wash your hands afterwords. That makes $42.81
eared for just standing in front of the toilet and urinating. .

Nice work if you can get it.

Michael Bruce, Terrace, B.C.

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