Dog left tied to hydro pole now in care of Kingston Humane Society

Alone, frightened and confused in the Kingston Humane Society’s (KHS) dog kennel — a female border collie’s prospects are better than they were a few hours ago.

The community ‘Lost and Found Pets’ Facebook page posted a picture of a dog left tied to a hydro pole support wire in Lafleur Park on Van Order Drive early Tuesday morning.

“That dog was actually brought to us,” says KHS Executive Director Gord Hunter. “The first thing we do is look at the dog to make sure it doesn’t need immediate attention. In this case we saw that the dog seems to be relatively healthy.”

Exactly how the dog came to be abandoned in a municipal park is under investigation.

Hunter says it was a particularly dangerous situation for the animal.

“That dog may have had to deal with foxes, raccoons,” says Hunter. “There’s so many other animals that just exist in our city and then, on top of that, maybe other animals that are loose that might have threatened that dog and the dog was tied up.

“It had nowhere to go and no way to defend itself.”

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The number of pets that end up in the Kingston Humane Society’s care has been rising since pandemic restrictions started easing.

“On this day in 2019 we had about 160 animals in care, just over 35 dogs,” Hunter says. “Now we’re at 257 animals in care, 74 dogs. So our numbers have gone up dramatically.”

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Hunter says abandoning animals doesn’t have to happen, as a scheduled pet surrender can be arranged with the humane society.

“There are cases where people can just no longer care for that animal,” he says. “Whether something medically has happened in that person’s life or their housing situation has changed, and we’re experts in dealing with that.”

Hunter says the fee for a scheduled surrender is $25 — which is far less costly than the harm that can be done to an animal left on it’s own with no one to feed or care for it.