Posted by Laurie on 10/25/2007, 11:13 am
69.156.209.249
From: Linda
To: Adopt A Dog/ Save A Life
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 9:14 PM
Subject: Please beware - HART
On Tuesday this week, I received a call on the HARTline, a woman frantically seeking vet assistance for a friend's dog.
Because her friend was on social services allowance and unable to afford vet care, could HART assist.
This is a fairly common appeal to HART and because many here live close to poverty line and below, HART does occassionally assist with vet support for suffering animals owned by those unable to provide vet care.
The caller, Patricia Avery, location Madoc, 613-473-1612 was asking for help for her friend Bryan Traver's female dog. "Portia" is a Cane Corso. Patricia said she owned the "sire" but did not name him.
Portia was said to be nursing a 3 week old litter of 9 Corso puppies and supplemental feeding of pups, was being administered by Patricia and Bryan. Dam was said to be fed a diet of Beneful, a Purina brand food. The dam, Portia had thrown several seizures in a short space of time. As the owner did not have funds for bloodwork and medication required to control the seizures, Patricia was seeking HART's assistance, on Bryan Traver's behalf.
I advised Patricia that HART would consider helping out, if she would be willing to surrender at least some of the pups to reduce stress to the dam and to reimburse HART vet costs. Patricia told me the pups would sell for over a $1000. each. I told her I would have to speak with our vet, before coming to an agreement as to paying for Portia's urgently needed vet care.
Bobbie Glazier put me in touch with an expert rescuer, familiar with the breed type.
This rescuer proceeded to inform me of not only the breed type, an excellent guardian animal, Italian mastiff, but she was also very familiar with my caller, a known "breeder" of poor repute.
Apparently, this litter had been bred with full knowledge of cluster seizure disorder, epilepsy, severe grand mal seizures. The dam was suffering horribly and all pups would be carriers of this defective gene. A number of the pups in this litter will inevitably be affected by this disorder. There is no test to determine how many or which pups will be affected. Once the seizures begin, affected pups will live a short, suffering life span, probably no more than 11/2 years.
The heartbreak endured by people manipulated to adopt these pups, will be overwhelming. In my opinion, this "breeding" is irresponsible, unconscionable and exploitive, of not only the poor animals involved, but of the breed type and of those hoping to bring home a healthy, loving young pup.
I was advised that Patricia was probably seeking assistance to obtain necessary phenobarbitol drug, to mask the seizure symptoms. The dam could then be shown to prospective adopters of her pups, misleading buyers to believe there was no history.
In my opinion, Patrica Avery and her friend Bryan Travers have a very poor reputation and should be avoided. Rescue of the pups is not a consideration, as the owner plans to sell them, according to Patricia Avery.
I called Patricia back to say, I had been informed of the bloodline and believed the Dam should be euthanized, in best interests of the dog's inevitable pain and suffering, no cure or medication available for symptoms this severe.
Patricia agreed, said the dam had experienced several more severe seizures since I had spoken with her earlier, and that her owner now planned to shoot her.
I offered to approve a humane euthanization with our vet, at HART's expense and have heard nothing more from Patricia Avery or Bryan Travers.
Linda
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