There are some very disturbing photos published online on the Globe & Mail website and elsewhere.
It has been widely reported this afternoon that there has been a 6 month long investigation, involving undercover investigators. There has for some time been strong differences of opinion between the THS and the OSPCA about when it is appropriate to euthanize an animal. If I understand this correctly, the THS is being accused of allowing animals to suffer inappropriately in order to produce lower euthanasia stats.
I’m sure we’ll get more details on this soon.
27th Street 
It is seriously sad to see a group who’s primary interest has to be the welfare of the animals in their care get charged with cruelty. Society needs things like humane societies to look after pets which for a variety of reasons can no longer be cared for by their owners. As a society we do not want to be in the situation where we have to hire people to roam the streets shooting stray animals. The peculiar thing is that the society that needs these organizations is not prepared to fund them. The burden of running these places is largely left to kind hearted volunteers who walk dogs, clean pens, feed animals, administer medications, perform janitorial duties and in some cases raise funds from the public. I have had some dealings with several different humane society branches/affiliates and I can say that one kind caring individual in a branch can make a world of difference in the health and happiness of the inmates. I can also say that one moron in a position of authority can drive off volunteers and drive off potential adopters of the pets in their care. So very much depends on the people who are actually on-site and caring for the animals that it would be very wrong to make a blanket condemnation of Humane Societies in general.
A couple of years ago I had some dealings with the Mississauga Human Society. This group didn’t have a building but did have a group of volunteers who take unwanted animals into their homes to care for them while a coordinating group attempts to advertise their availability for adoption. I visited the home of a couple who were caring for a half dozen large dogs many of which I would call unadoptable because of their aggressive nature. At least a couple of these dogs had lived at this home for several years and the folks caring for them admitted that there wasnt much chance of ever getting them adopted out. Still, they cared for the dogs and gave them a home and the dogs were happy. The world needs more folks like that.
I have also run into branches where there seemed to be some sort of feifdom in place designed to show the world just how important the people running the joint were. As it turned out these branches also had some dedicated volunteers but geez they were hard to deal with.
In some cases I think some of the humane societies have become seriously too full of themselves. Our current dog was adopted from a humane society and in general we were happy with the process although it did take several weeks and some aggravation before we finally were able to bring the little guy home. Part of the deal was that he was a pup and would not be adopted out without being neutered. Fair enough. I offered to take him home, have him neutered by my vet and tender the vets invoice to the humane society and accept whatever part of the bill they felt was fair compensation. Their policy was to pay for the neutering out of the adoption fee. That suggestion was no good at all, the surgery had to be done by their vet. Ok fair enough, call me when he is ready to take home. Nope. I lived 40 miles from this particular branch of humane society and I had to drive there, collect the pup, deliver it to their vet and sit around all day in a town that had a general store and a vet office waiting for him to emerge from surgery. The pup was sort of special so I agreed to this nonsense. I delivered the pup to the vet, hung around the vet’s office until the surgery started then drove back to the humane society to pay the adoption fee and complete the rest of the stack of paperwork. The plan was to take him home directly from the vet’s office. Nope. The procedure was that I had to pick him up and return him to the humane society before they would complete the paperwork. They would not trust just a phone call to the vet to confirm that he was in fact in surgery as they spoke. Well in my own inimitable fashion I pretty much lost it right then and in all honesty I am surprised they let me have the pup at all after the grief I gave the woman in charge. They eventually relented after I stormed out of the place and the woman ran out in the parking lot to retrieve me and collect her money. Perhaps though all the rules had a purpose because I will add that the animals in their care were easily the happiest and best cared for pets I have seen in any humane society.
This was our second try at adopting a pup from a humane society. The first try was at the Barrie affiliate. They had a delightful young border collie x lab puppy with a super disposition and nothing would do but we were going to bring that pup home. Nope. You have to fill out an adoption application. Because he is a cutie we are going to wait another week to collect as many applications as possible to choose from, then the adoption committee (the WHAT?) will convene and decide who will get the pup. A home visit may be required. Sigh.. how many applications do you have for him so far? The woman held up a stack of applications about 3 inches thick. So we applied, paced back and forth for a week in anticipation then got the call. Sorry we gave him to someone else.
I think that if the town close to me had a humane society facility that I very likely would volunteer a few hours each week to help care for the animals. I believe that most animals that end up in the care of a humane society can be re-homed and make a wonderful companion for someone and I believe that process is more likely to happen if the animals are well cared for while in the custody of the humane society.
Thanks for your thoughtful comments, Salvelinas, and for sharing your experiences here.