One of the first things you notice about Nelson House is the large number of dogs. In Toronto, most dogs are pets that are well taken care of by their owners, but in NH, most dogs are semi-wild; they don't have owners and must scavenge for food.
Why is it like this? The main reason is that there is no vet in NH and the people who live here are not going take the time and money to have their dogs neutered. That means that anytime a female dog is able to have puppies, she does, so the population grows quickly.
These puppies are left to survive on their own. The dogs that do survive usually travel in packs. It can be a bit scary sometimes because you don't know which ones are friendly or not. You also don't know if they have any diseases so after I pet one, I make sure to wash my hands really well. There are so many dogs that show up at school in the mornings (we counted 18 one day) that someone actually has the job of shooing them away. He has to be aggressive with them, sometimes using what I can only describe as a doggy-taser.
The res dogs, as we call them, are not treated very well here. It is very upsetting to see children hitting and kicking puppies but it happens often. There are just so many of them around that each dog's life isn't valued as it should be. It's tempting to take them all in or at least give them food, but the numbers are too overwhelming, and our rental agreement states that no pets are allowed.
The saddest thing about this situation is that when the dog population grows too large, a dog catcher is hired to round up as many dogs as he/she can and these dogs are killed. Posters are put up in the community to inform you when the dog catcher is coming so that if you have a pet dog you know to keep it inside on that day.
I hope that despite this sad information you can still enjoy the photo gallery. These dogs are simply adorable!
