Collies saved from certain death by an animal sanctuary need temporary homes with Royston residents.
The collies crave love and
reassurance, so experienced dog owners are sought to care for them for a few weeks.The Heathlands Animal Sanctuary in Royston rescues collies from Ireland where the destruction of stray dogs is brutally commonplace, bringing them to the UK by ferry.
Sanctuary trustee and coordinator Gillian Knight said: “Our collies are mainly young, as most don’t make it to old age unfortunately. There is a terrible waste of life, and it’s not uncommon for a vet to go to a council pound and destroy thirty dogs in one go.”
The fostering sc
heme is vital to the project’s success as the sanctuary can only rescue dogs when it has space, but places are few because of the number of incoming canines. Heathlands expects 14 more next week.Many collies are in poor condition before they begin the 17 hour ferry crossing. Fostering helps them adjust, especially for animals which might not survive a stint in kennels.
Fosterers must have secure home premises and no children. Heathlands provides all food and equipment, and covers medical bills.
At least 85 percent of impounded animals are executed in Ireland. Karen Barry, working with Heathlands, said: “It’s effectively a form of controlled euthanasia.”
Some breeds suffer more, with collies actually considered vermin and regularly culled. They are considered working dogs, of no value for anything else.
Heathlands is one of few English organisations which rescues and re-homes Irish collies. It has saved 160 since March, while pressure-group ANVIL (Animals Need a Voice in Legislation) seeks to rectify scant Irish animal welfare law.
Permanent homes are also needed for collies, and donations to the limited rescue fund are welcomed.
Contact Heathlands Animal Sanctuary on 01763 244488.
ENDS
Word count: 300
REFLECTIVE REPORT:
This is a piece of real-world investigative reporting. Asked to produce an article about animals as a homework exercise, I wanted to find a story which had a strong emotive hook.
I sourced it on-line, searching the Royston Crow’s archives and using www.google.co.uk to find animal related organisations, animal rights pressure groups and such like from the locality.
I researched the piece by reading the websites of the sanctuary (http://www.heathlands.org.uk) and ANVIL (http://www.anvilireland.ie), before phoning Heathlands and interviewing the project organisers, who were happy to talk and gave a lot of information.
Originally, I focused the article around the shocking statistic that 85 percent of strays are culled in Ireland because that was what grabbed my attention, and because the seemingly senseless waste of life is a theme that anyone reading could sympathise with.
However, following feedback, I reworked the article using a more local theme to introduce it. The point of the article was to help find local foster carers for the collies so I lead with this the second time.
This is because local readers, whilst they would indeed sympathise with the scale of the killings, would be distracted from the true relevance of the piece to them – the relevance being the need for them to offer their help.
I used a concise four paragraph introduction, with an emotive angle and wording backed up by facts and a quote with shock value. I structured the piece with a standard journalistic “inverted triangle” approach.
Unfortunately my word limit would not allow space for a quote from the sanctuary as to why collies make good pets, or more statistics from ANVIL to support the facts – although adding statistics may have made the piece cumbersome.
This piece was pitched to the Crow for publishing, but has not been included yet.
Word count: 299
No comments:
Post a Comment