'I was shocked': BC SPCA reminds owners to secure pets in vehicles after dog dragged behind pickup
'I was shocked': BC SPCA reminds owners to secure pets in vehicles after dog dragged behind pickup
Veterinarians on Vancouver Island are warning dog-owners to always secure their pets inside a vehicle when transporting them after a dog fell out of the back of a pickup truck and was dragged behind the vehicle by her tether.
Heidi, a three-year-old German shepherd, is now in the care of the BC SPCA in Nanaimo, B.C., after she was found severely injured on the side of the road.
"When I first saw the pictures of Heidi’s injuries, I was shocked," said Eileen Drever, the BC SPCA’s senior officer for protection and stakeholder relations, in a release Tuesday.
"Her paws and lower leg were worn down to the bone. The physical and psychological pain that this kind of tragic event would cause is unimaginable."
A witness to the dragging incident alerted the RCMP, who found Heidi and her owner on the side of the road, the BC SPCA said.
The animal protection group says Heidi was in critical medical distress and was seized by the RCMP and rushed to a veterinary hospital for emergency surgery.
Three and a half weeks of intensive round-the-clock treatment later, Heidi is expected to recover and will likely be available for adoption in mid-December.
The veterinary staff describe Heidi as a lovely dog, with a friendly disposition despite what she has been through.
"Transport of an unsecured pet in the back of a pickup is illegal, but as Heidi’s case shows, even tethered transport poses serious risks," Drever said.
"The best and safest way to transport dogs is always inside the vehicle, preferably with a harness made specifically for travelling in a vehicle."
The BC SPCA is covering all of the costs of Heidi’s treatment. Anyone wishing to donate to help cover her care and that of other animals in B.C. can do so anytime on the BC SPCA website.
Beyonce stands alone on her Grammy throne: With her fourth win Sunday night, she has become the most decorated artist in the show's history surpassing the 26-year-old record once held by the late Hungarian-British conductor Georg Solti.
Groups that advocate for seafarers are expressing concern for 11 sailors who are spending a harsh Quebec winter aboard three tugboats that have been detained for months in the port of Trois-Rivières.
She started throwing punches to get exercise during the COVID-19 pandemic, but now 17-year-old Talia Birch is gearing up to compete in the Canada Games as it opens up to female boxers for the first time
Charles Kimbrough, a Tony- and Emmy-nominated actor who played a straight-laced news anchor opposite Candice Bergen on “Murphy Brown,” died Jan. 11 in Culver City, California. He was 86.
Canadian researchers are drawing attention to the increasing prevalence of 'a pathological pursuit of muscularity' among Canadian boys and young men, with a new study that found one in four were at risk of developing what's known as muscle dysmorphia.
A Montreal woman is passing along her father's extensive collection of over 31,000 Expos baseball cards. April Whitzman's father, Steve Whitzman, collected the cards from 1969 to 2016. A huge Expos fan, he's got every player covered.
Singer-songwriter Tobias Jesso Jr. became a first-time Grammy Award winner at the pre-broadcast ceremony where fellow Canadians Michael Buble and Drake also picked up trophies.
Canada has sent one of its military planes to Haiti to help the country cope with escalating violence. A joint statement today from National Defence Minister Anita Anand and Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says Canada has deployed a CP-140 Aurora aircraft to help 'disrupt the activities of gangs' in Haiti.
Tucked away on a residential street in Langley, there's a blue cabinet filled with VHS tapes and DVDs bearing the once-familiar logo of Blockbuster video.
The City of Vancouver will be providing $2.8 million in funding to the local health authority to bolster the city’s mental health services, officials announced Sunday.
Toronto police have identified the victim of a fatal hit-and-run on the Danforth early Sunday morning, which police say is now being treated as a homicide.
Councillors in Toronto are set to consider keeping warming centres open 24-7 for the rest of the winter amid growing calls for homelessness to be declared a public health crisis in the city.
Montreal conductor and pianist Yannick Nézet-Séguin scored two Grammys for his classical works Sunday evening. Nézet-Séguin won best opera recording for "Blanchard: Fire Shut Up In My Bones," and best classical solo vocal album for "Voice Of Nature - The Anthropocene."
Groups that advocate for seafarers are expressing concern for 11 sailors who are spending a harsh Quebec winter aboard three tugboats that have been detained for months in the port of Trois-Rivières.
The Quebec Liberal Party (QLP) will announce its candidate for the Saint-Henri-Sainte-Anne riding Monday morning, almost three months after former party leader Dominique Anglade announced her resignation.
After one of the coldest days in years for most of the Maritimes, temperatures were up significantly Sunday. Now, after the big chill came the big thaw -- and a flood of calls for local plumbers.
Cold weather alerts that blanketed eastern Canada for the past two days have largely lifted, but some Nova Scotians and New Brunswickers remain without power due to outages caused by the frigid temperatures and high winds.
New Brunswick RCMP has requested the Nova Scotia Serious Incident Response Team (SiRT) conduct an inquiry after a man died during a police response Saturday.
An armed robbery at Conestoga Mall, a hearing on a 2018 Kitchener house explosion, and a school cancelling Valentine's Day round out the most ready stories of the week.
Jayson Reddekopp has been a Lego collector since he was a kid. Now in his second year of university, he’s bringing his passion to life using just his Lego pieces and an iPhone.
Jayson Reddekopp has been a Lego collector since he was a kid. Now in his second year of university, he’s bringing his passion to life using just his Lego pieces and an iPhone.
Greater Sudbury Police Service say it has charged a man and a woman with multiple offences following the investigation into an online ad selling a cellular phone.
Canadian researchers are drawing attention to the increasing prevalence of 'a pathological pursuit of muscularity' among Canadian boys and young men, with a new study that found one in four were at risk of developing what's known as muscle dysmorphia.
A teen is in hospital with serious but not life-threatening injuries following an incident in the Greater Sudbury community of Coniston Saturday evening.
