Tag: puppies

Lost dogs, Adelaide and Plan C

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
20130515_100259_1
This lovely old Lady turned up in my driveway. I looked after her for several hours until the RSPCA came to collect her.

Part of the problem for the South Australia Dog Rescue in this region is that most of the dogs are either throw away dogs – dogs that just get dumped either outside the vet or tied up outside the local supermarket, or dogs that have been fairly reasonably looked after but were bought as puppies for Christmas Presents and ” well we didn’t realise he /she  would grow so big and we really can’t afford him/her”.  Another reason is backyard breeders, and people who just refuse to have the cat or dog desexed – which leads to dumping. But whatever the reason we just cannot cope with the amount of dogs that  end up in the pound or the RSPCA. Sometimes we manage to get a dog rehomed in Adelaide and ask if anyone  going to Adelaide would be willing to take the dog down with them.  I try to help out when I can – when I go down to Adelaide I  take a dog with me if one is waiting transport. More often than not we don’t have a dog rehomed but we will get him/her transported to Adelaide to the  larger population area and hope that they can find a new home. Unfortunately, our pound is a kill pound.

Should try and put that in context – if you look at South Australia on Google Maps ( or even an old Atlas) you will see an area called “Gulf St Vincent”. If you draw a line from the head of the gulf – to the right and the State border, then the area below that line you have drawn comprises 85% of the total population of this state. The 15% of us are scattered across the remainder. In this state, 85% of the population occupy only 15% of the total landmass. More than other states, South Australia is metro centric. If it does’t happen in Adelaide, it’s not worth bothering about. Similarly, if it happens in Adelaide, it’s must be good for all of South Australia.  TeeHee, if the Defense Force took over five feet of land in Adelaide there would be the devil to pay – protests by the dozen. They take over 500 square miles up here and no one bats an eyelid – except the people whose land had been taken over by a  Compulsory  Purchase Order.

Plan A has gone by the wayside, Plan B is about to follow it, and we are now on to Plan C. An emergency meeting has been called at North Adelaide  for Wednesday afternoon – since everyone is already there.  So much for coming home on Wednesday – unless they change things again. It’s very possible since there is still a whole week to go.

Dogs, adoption and Adelaide

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Adelaide;

Why do we transport dogs to Adelaide for adoption?  Why not adopt locally? Ok. Only this week a little Maltese Cross was tied up outside a local supermarket in a shopping area. It was a very warm day and it was only when the little thing started going into distress that people realised something was very wrong. Dog owners frequently take their dog with them when they go to the supermarket, tie the dog up outside, get their milk or whatever, leave,  pick up the dog and go home. It’s common practice – but this character (whoever he may be), tied the dog up and vanished. Because it is a common enough sight, no one really paid much attention for several hours. Once it was discovered that there was a problem and the owner was nowhere in sight, the RSPCA (ASPCA??) were called.  Not so very long ago two puppies were tied up to a tree 10 miles from town and left there. They were spotted by a passing motorist who called the RSPCA and the dogs were taken to the pound.  To paraphrase the words of the late President Reagan ” locally is not the solution to the problem – locally is the problem.”  Backyard breeders are a problem and dogs – and kittens – get dumped on the doorstep of the local vet. The staff have frequently come to open up in the morning and found a box on the doorstep with two, or more puppies in it.  The other problem is that this is a kill pound. Two weeks is all they can stay, then they are euthanised. I cannot foster because of my own dogs but I  do what I can and help out with my frequent trips to Adelaide, but we do have a good number of people who cae enough to TasFirefoster until a new home is found. Oh but we are not uncivilised and  the council no longer uses a gas chamber, but uses a lethal injection. The gas chamber was taken out of service in 2009.

Queensland and Northern New South Wales are recovering from major flooding whilst  parts of Victoria and Tasmania are again having serious fire problems. I have a friend in Tasmania who sent me some photographs  of the fire in the hills above her property. They look quite disturbing and orders are out for evacuations. I said before, in this little corner of the commonwealth we are relatively free from real extremes of weather, fires and floods.

I find it interesting how attitudes change over time – well mine has.  I once looked on my trips to town as a bonus,  because  the early start to the Saturday Conference meant I  had to travel down on the Friday. However as the participants have become, over the years, more and more  metro centric ( if it’s good for Adelaide it MUST be good for the whole of the State) and have this belief that nothing of any importance happens beyond the Adelaide boundaries, I have come to look on the  Conferences as the price I have to pay for my frequent trips to the city. Sad, really. Still,  the dogs that I help to rehome benefit and that can’t be a bad thing.