Staff at the Patti Dale animal shelter in Aldergrove arrived Saturday morning, March 23, to find a traumatized dog had been left tied to the parking lot gate with her own leash.
Sara Jones, executive director of the Langley Animal Protection Society (LAPS) that operates the shelter, said it took them a long time to get the terrified dog, a two-year-old female bully breed, calm enough to get her inside.
“She was giving us warnings, like ‘back away,’ so that we couldn’t untie her,” Jones told the Langley Advance Times.
“So after spending about 40 minutes with her, tossing her hot dogs, she let us undo her leash and then we got her inside [without being bitten], but we haven’t even been able to take her jacket off yet, which is wet,” Jones explained.
”She’s terrified. I mean she’s had a very traumatic evening.”
An online appeal by LAPS was able to locate the owner, who, it turned out, had to suddenly go in for medical attention, Jones said.
“Times are very hard for people right now and although not the best choice to leave her terrified at the gate, they tried to do the right thing by bringing her to us,” a LAPS statement said.
It will take time and effort before the abandoned dog can be put up for adoption, Jones predicted.
“She’s probably going to need intensive behavior medication and behavior [training] to help her over get over the trauma.”
Those who would like to make a donation toward the dog’s care are invited to visit lapsbc.ca.
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Jones said the shelter has been seeing more and more surrendered dogs, describing it as a “huge problem.”
As of Saturday, LAPS had 30 dogs, sharing 28 kennels.
“We’ve had so many abandoned dogs,” Jones related.
“We have people come in and say, this litter of puppies, I found them at the side of the road.”
Other shelters have experienced a similar increase in abandoned dogs, which many have blamed on an increase in underground breeding during the pandemic, followed by a drop in adoptions post-COVID, combined with tough economic times that are forcing some people to give up their pets.
“I think breeders are starting to realize that nobody wants these dogs,” Jones said.
“So when they can’t get rid of them, they give them to us. And in the meantime, they’re not cared for properly. They’re not socialized.”
It is also taking LAPS longer to find homes for abandoned dogs.
“We still have two puppies in care [Great Danes], and we can’t find them homes. They’ve been with us for two and a half months. That’s unheard of.”
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