I wasn't sure what the best forum was for it, but since the guy is unionized and getting fired for whistle-blowing, I thought the labour forum would be good.

Globe article unavailable directly, but it's posted in full here.

quote:

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The Toronto Humane Society has fired an employee who went public with his concerns about aggressive dogs being offered up for adoption.

Al Wright, 47, was dismissed late yesterday after being told that his actions had violated the Humane Society's policies and compromised its ability to protect animals. Mr. Wright's firing marks the latest round in a months-long war between THS management and rank-and-file workers who oppose its policies.

Mr. Wright, who earned $17 an hour as an animal-control officer, has cast himself as a Jeffrey Wigand figure who has been persecuted for blowing the whistle: "As far as I'm concerned, I was fired for speaking the truth," Mr. Wright said yesterday after his firing. "And I think the public deserved to have the truth."

Mr. Wright's battle with management went public this summer when he spoke to the media about the Humane Society's handling of Bandit, a pit bull who bit a three-year-old boy last year, leaving a wound that required more than 200 stitches.

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Well, THS politics is tremendously convuluted and bizarre, to say the least. Some of the articles have portrayed it as a new trend, but relations between management and the staff have always been difficult, if not downright nasty.

Regardless, Al Wright, the employee in question, is one of the best employees, one of the most open-minded yet realistic people that the THS has ever employed. He has a special fondness for pitbulls, and will go out of his way to work with them if they're 'iffy' to try to get them adopted. Yet as shown in this situation, he's also realistic, if the dog has already been ruined by poor training and socialization, he's not willing to risk someone's life by putting the dog back out there.

The battle over this dog seems more of a political game than an actual true belief by Mr Trow that Bandit, the dog in question, should be adopted. If he believed that, why isn't he taking the dog home? There is a lot more history behind this story, much of it political manouevering between Animal Control and the Toronto Humane Society, and that makes me very skeptical that Mr Trow's only agenda is that Bandit get a 'second chance'.