Wednesday, May 23, 2012

For every negative story there is a positive story.

Alas the media, particularly CBC when it comes to covering Labrador, do not cover all that many stories that do not have alcohol, indigenous peoples, abuse and the like and put them up on the evening news.

Not that these stories should not be covered, they should, but perhaps with a little less zeal and what could be perceived as relish by the head honchos in Sin Jawns.

And CBC does cover positive stories, but again with less zeal and province wide coverage.

The negative went province wide yesterday, a story that had its birth on Facebook, brewed up from a Labrador story that ended up on Here&Now and regional radio news.

I find it abhorrent when animals are abused and battered, it happens too frequently in many communities, particularly in larger centers where it is too easy to get lost in all else that goes on in busy cities. Out in the boonies it is easier to get to the front pages, we wont go into why, it just does.

I feel if Ms Hill had omitted just one word from her initial Facebook threat then things may not have blown out of proportion. Then the radio interview with Ms Learning disturbed me a little. She sounded very aggravated and rightly so, but she also sounded combative and defensive at the same time, a bit like the premier when she is questioned about Muskrat Falls.

 Having said that I most likely would have sounded the same way if two truck loads of thugs had arrived at my place of work and threatened a junior employee as well as the rest of the board and staff of the shelter in absence.

There is always a bunch of people ready and willing to play the race card, if they are upset with attitudes towards then in general then go face the folks responsible, not some young volunteer at an animal shelter.

Any way enough of that, the real reason for this post is Blizzard, a rescue dog from Nain who has it pretty good these days down in St. John's. His new owners have it pretty good too by the look of him.

Not unlike Siutik, he could be mistaken for her son but he is not.

I first came across Blizzard the early days of his rescue, he was in the yard of his rescuers, and in the arms of one. We met just a couple of times but even at that young age he displayed the qualities of a bright smart dog.

The rescuers planned to send him out to St. John's to one of their parents, which they eventually did.

I have since found out that Blizzard is now owned by a chap [a friend of the rescuer] who has a dog training background. That is the new owners son in the photo with Blizzard at 5 months old. 

Blizzard is now 7 months old and get this, he goes visits schools and aged care facilities and interacts with children and seniors. Not sure to what capacity, should try find that out, but what a great story for CBC and any other MSM to follow up on.

There are many good uplifting stories of dogs being rescued off the streets in Nain and other communities in Labrador.

It is a small but dedicated group of individuals who take it upon themselves to do this. Kudos to them for taking it on, and without any government financial help I might add, unlike the thugs in the pick-ups at the animal shelter.

There is also an individual here who has taken it upon them-self to learn many aspects of veterinary treatment. Many people take animals to this person for treatment  for a wide variety of ills and sometimes injuries from abuse.

So when I hear of these animal abuse stories I don't dismiss them, but I do find heart knowing there is another side, the unsung heroes out there doing there best for defenseless animals.




2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great story about Blizzard there Cobber. Nice thing when dogs like us get to take in nice two legged feeders..... I mean friends
Pitsik Miles

Brian said...

Hi Pitsik, your name always makes me hungry.

Be good to see you again in July. Hopefully you can take some of the adulation pressure off of me for a bit. It increases every week and having to stop for rubs and petting gets in the way of doing dog stuff.

Ciao, Siutik