A woman whose application to adopt a dog from the SPCA was denied due to her plan to tether the dog in her yard for training purposes has been given a second chance.
Myrna Mycock, who lives on a rural acreage northeast of the city near Shelley, had hoped to adopt Diesel, a nine-month-old German shepherd cross.
Mycock, in her SPCA application, specified her intention to tie up Diesel temporarily until he gets used to his new surroundings, and that did not go down well with an SPCA staff member at the Lansdowne Avenue animal shelter Wednesday, who turned down the application for that reason. The dog has a history of having most of its life with its previous owner chained up in a yard and neglected.
Debbie Goodine, relief manager for the BC SPCA North Cariboo branch, looked into the case and will be meeting with Mycock and her nine-year-old German shepherd/Irish wolfhound cross, Teddy, on Monday at the shelter.
"We're going to review Myrna's application and see if Diesel or another will be a fit," Goodine said.
That came as welcome news to Mycock, who was confident there will be a happy ending. She's hoping that will mean Diesel, whom she considers a perfect fit for her family, will be coming home with her.
"Debbie told me she wouldn't have been so quick to deny me the right to adopt and she agreed that sometimes animals do need to be tethered," said Mycock. "This is a great step in the right direction and it's more than I ever could have hoped for. I understand they have certain rules for certain dogs for certain reasons. But in Diesel's case, he's nine months old and he's been on a chain in a back yard for all his life and it wouldn't traumatize him, in fact it would be something he would know. Traumatizing him would be putting him inside the house in a crate."
Goodine was unable on Friday to speak to the person who turned down Mycock's application, but she did explain the SPCA is clear in its policy that dogs should not be left tied up.
"A flag for us, absolutely, is when animals are going to be tethered," said Goodine. "They're social animals, so ideally, if someone is going to take a large dog we want to make sure they will have a large fenced yard, where the dog can be free. Tethering causes a lot of behavioural problems with dogs, especially if it's extended over a long period. I'm not clear what happened, but maybe there was a misunderstanding at the front desk.[Tethering for training purposes] would be reasonable, but we don't want to adopt to a home where they will use it for a guard dog and keep it tied up. That would be a huge concern for us."
