VANCOUVER — A suspected street thief named Ellie has bedazzled Erin Silo.
Silo has yet to catch Ellie committing a theft — other than stealing her heart — since she adopted the Taiwanese rescue dog in March. The 29-year-old Richmond resident sees only an adorable, exceptionally intelligent dog who learned eight commands in their first two weeks together.
But Cherry Latour, the dog rescuer who imported the Formosan mountain dog to B.C. from Taiwan, isn’t so sure Ellie’s paws are clean.
“I kept finding my purse on the floor and my wallet out with all my plastic cards gone,” said Latour, founder of Mission-based Dogway Dog Rescue Society. “I kept finding them in her bed. Speculation has it that she was trained on the streets to assist purse-nappers.”
Critics in B.C.’s animal shelter and rescue community might suggest Ellie is a thief in another sense. They might say she has unwittingly stolen an adoptive home that should go to a dog born and bred in the province.
B.C. shelters have lots of dogs in need of homes, according to this line of thinking. Why import foreign dogs when we can’t find families for the ones we already have?
Barbara Cartwright, Ottawa-based CEO of the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies, argues that Canada should first find homes for its overpopulation of domestic dogs.
But Cartwright does not believe Canadian dogs are being euthanized because of the arrival of foreign dogs. She said the issue sparks a clash of emotions in her organization.
“It’s a conundrum. On the one hand, we celebrate anyone who has compassion and empathy for an animal,” Cartwright said.
“Where it becomes conflictual for us is: What are we doing with the animals already here in Canada and can we get that problem solved?”
Even those concerned about the impact of foreign rescue dogs in B.C. and Canada concede it’s a complicated matter.
For one thing, nobody knows how many foreign rescue dogs are arriving. No federal or provincial agency keeps tabs on furry immigrants.
Foreign rescue dogs are becoming more popular in this province, according to B.C.-based rescue groups. Rescuers in the province report steady or rising demand. Taiwan, India and California, with large populations of street or shelter dogs, are among the most popular sources of canines coming to B.C.
Bob Busch, the B.C. SPCA’s operations general manager, said the arrival of foreign rescue dogs likely does not jeopardize the adoptability of domestic rescues.
“The numbers, I suspect, are so small they don’t have a big impact,” Busch said.
Nine per cent of the 9,200 dogs taken in by B.C. SPCA shelters last year were euthanized. That’s one of the lowest rates in Canada, and far below the national average of 31 per cent, Busch said.
Foreign rescue dogs, in many cases, do not compete for the same adoptive homes as Canadian animals, rescuers say. Latour, who places domestic and international dogs, said there’s a shortage of small dogs at B.C. shelters. “There is just not the little-dog problem here like there is at the high-kill shelters in California.”
Busch said the number of small dogs entering SPCA shelters in B.C. has fallen off in recent years as people try to sell unwanted animals themselves.
When Langley’s Julie Dahl went looking for a smaller dog as a companion for her two young daughters, she decided to avoid going to breeders out of a conviction there are already too many dogs in B.C.
But Dahl and her husband found SPCA shelters across the province dominated by larger breeds, Dahl said. They decided to adopt a male mixed terrier named Luke that Dogway brought from California.
“I’ve had people ask ‘Why get a dog from California when there are so many here?’ ” Dahl said.
“For us, it doesn’t matter where they come from,” she said. “The dogs in B.C. were for another family. Making sure a rescue dog is right for your family is more important than wherever it comes from.”
Timing also helps. Latour said Luke was minutes away from being euthanized at a California shelter when a friend plucked him from death’s jaws and sent him to B.C.
Jennifer Nosek, editor of Vancouver-based Modern Dog magazine, predicts that demand for foreign and local rescue dogs will continue to grow in B.C. Awareness of the conditions facing street and shelter dogs is on the rise, she said.
People travelling abroad often bring animals back with them. Nosek’s uncle recently did that with dogs from Mexico.
And people who do not set out to adopt foreign rescues often search pet databases such as petfinder.com and find their ideal rescue dog comes from abroad, she said.
Abbotsford’s Barbara Gard, founder of Adopt An Indian Desi Dog, says the question of whether rescue dogs should be imported is misleading.
The majority of breeds in North America already come from somewhere else, said Gard, who rescues desi dogs from New Delhi (desis are a breed of heritage dogs that abound in the Indian streets). North American settlers killed off all but a few indigenous breeds, she says.
“People who object [to foreign rescue dogs] are not thinking globally,” Gard said. “They’re thinking locally and we’re not a local society.”
International rescue cuts both ways, Gard said. The World Society for Protection of Animals funds and runs sterilization and vaccination clinics in remote Canadian communities. It also works with native groups to address overpopulation of dogs on reserves, Gard said.
“WSPA does fantastic work around the world and Canada is one of their focus countries,” she said.
The real issue, say advocates of foreign rescues, is how much of an impact their efforts have on over-dogged countries or U.S. states.
Dogway Dog Rescue has rescued and “re-homed” more than 500 dogs, half of them local and half foreign, since starting in 2011.
People typically pay $300 to $450 to adopt a dog. That does not cover all of the costs of treatment and care, leaving Dogway to rely on donations — money, services and products — to cover the difference.
Latour gets hundreds of emails daily from contacts abroad begging her to rescue dogs on death row in shelters. “I don’t see the borders of countries — dogs are universal citizens. I see the plight of a sentient being,” Latour said. “We believe in the life of the individual dog. We can’t save them all but we can save them one at a time.”
Erin Silo made a joyful difference in Ellie’s life. The dog’s credentials as a thief are dubious but it is known that she was taken to a vet hospital in Taiwan after being run over by a car. The clinic splinted Ellie’s leg, let it heal for a month and released her from up to 65 kilometres away.
A few days later, the little dog turned up back at the clinic.
Silo read her story on petfinder.com, went to meet Ellie and fell in love with the sweet and stunningly smart dog.
“I was just looking for a rescue dog. I wasn’t looking for one from overseas,” Silo said. “This is just how it worked out.”
