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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1988-12-14, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1988. PAGE 5. BY TOBY RAINEY Life wasn’t much fun for Blyth's June Foran last year at this time, or for any of the three Christmases before that. When winter began to close in, so did her world - and spring seemed a long time off. Trapped in her own home by the onset of a shocking blindness that came without warning in 1983, there wasn ’ t a lot she could do, or any place she could go, without being totally dependent upon her husband, Ron; and that rankled to the point that life often seemed almost too great a burden to bear. But all that has changed now: Mrs. Foran has a new pair of eyes in the person of a gentle and beautiful German Shepherd dog named Bud­ dy, and all of a sudden she can be her own person again, coming and going wherever and whenever she wants, dependent upon none but herself, and her Buddy. “Ijust can’t imagine how 1 got along without her,' ’ she says now. “1 don’t think there is a store in Blyth that we haven’t been in these past few months ... she's given me a whole new life!” “Yeah - that dog has more friends in town than I do, and I've been here for 25 years,” jokes Ron, beaming with pride over his wife's accom­ plishments, while Buddy thumps her tail in agreement, content to know that her beloved family is happy. Buddy is a Guide dog, specially trained to serve as the eyes of a master who can no longer see. And even though she is only two years old, scarcely more than a puppy, she knows that whenever she is wearing the special harness that is the badge of her profession, she is to respond only to the commands of her master, and is to keep that master safe from any harm that might come in the form of unexpected curbs, obstacles in the path, or even in the threats sometimes uttered by other dogs. Buddy’s learned and natural protective instincts are causing her and her master some problems in Blyth, where the pair has been in the news several times over the problem of dogs running loose, dogs which Buddy sees as a possible threat to her master, sometimes lunging at them if they get too close to Mrs. Foran - a terrifying experience, June says, when she can’t see what is going on. Born, raised and trained in cities and on busy streets, Buddy had never before seen a dog running loose - or a cat, which can sometimes be an even greater problem, Mrs. Foran says. Blyth council is greatly concerned about the problem, but with a bylaw already in place stating that dogs must be confined to their own property, but not necessarily tied, there is little anyone can do to make Buddy’s job easier. June says Buddy is getting better, and will never bother with another dog unless it comes right up to her, and she expects the problem will solve itself in time. But in the meantime, she appre­ ciates any help that people in Blyth can give, adding that people have been very good in keeping their dogs found, and the trainer had to head back to the city without making any suggestions. In Canada, virtually all guide dogs are trained at the Canine Vision of Canada School in Oakville, a project which was instigated and is admini­ stered entirely by the Lions Founda­ tion of Canada, supported by Lions Clubs in communities all across the At present, it costs more than $500,000 per year to run the school, with a large part of the funds being raised by Lions Clubs across the nation, most notably the Walk-a- Dog-a-Thons which are held every year on the first Sunday in October (last year, the project raised more than $40,000 in District A-9 alone, Mr. Chisholm says). But the Lions June Foran and Buddy have become inseparable companions, with Mrs. Foran enjoying the new-found freedom and independence the dog has brought into her life. The pair are a familiar sight on the streets of Blyth. in during the times she is likely to be out with Buddy, and in telling her when there is a loose dog on the street or near a property line. At one time, Buddy’s trainer even came up from the Canine Vision School to observe the problem first hand and see if Buddy could be corrected in any way; but although he, Buddy and June walked up and down village streets where other dogs have often challenged the Seeing EyeDog, notaloosedogwastobe nation. The school has been turning out trained guide dogs for a little more than three years now, at the rate of about ,45 dogs per year, although it will be able to train about 150 dogs and people per year when it gets up to running at full capacity, according to Grant Chisholm of RR 2, Lucknow, Canine Vision chairman of LionsDistrict A-9, which takes in the entire areafrom Goderich to Mit- chell and across to Thornbury and Orangeville. The International Scene BY RAYMOND CANON Needless to say, I was quite interested in the recent decision by the Fleck Manufacturing Company to move its equipment out of its plant at Centralia and have the work done down in Mexico instead where the wage rates are much lower than they are in Canada. The move came as a result of a strike by the workers of the Centralia plant and it goes without saying that the move caught the strikers without an effective coun­ ter-move although of possibility of the plant closing had been in the wind for a couple of days previous to the actual event. Even Bob White, the normally competent head of the Canadian Auto Workers union, was at some­ thing of a loss. In trying to cheer up the strikers outside the plant, he threw out some of the silliest statements he has ever made in claiming that the move was the resultof the free trade agreement. If management thought they were going to get away with stunts like that, then the workers, led by Mr. White of course, would be prepared tooccupy the factories in order to get their pointacross. He will, of course, if he is prepared to go to jail for trespassing. Good try, Mr. White, but smarten up a bit. Don’t you know reality' when you see it staring you in the face? The Fleck issue has nothing to do with free trade. Mr. White, being in the middle of the automobile industry, should realize that what happened toFleck iswhatisgoing on wherever cars are made. Whether the car you drive is of European, North American. Japanese or Kore­ an in origin, the chances are that the parts in it have been made anywhere in the world for there is no longer any such thingasa truly North American car. Even the so-called Big Three, GM, Ford and Chrysler, all have shares in Japanese car companies and you have only to look at nearby Ingersoll to see a concrete example of the new wave. The fact is that one car manufac­ turermayeven have its gear boxes or transmissions made by someone who also supplies them to the opposition or. surprise of surprises, even made by one of the competitors themselves. The whole market is highly competitive and Fleck, like anybody else, has to keep prices down in order to compete. From the looks of the wage levels at Fleck, it appears that the w orkers there would fall generally into the unskilled bracket and this brings up epes of a friend large corporate donations toward the support of the school, such as a recent donation of $10,000 from Sun Oil of Canada, a donation secured directly by Mr. Chisholm who is a Sunoco fuel oil dealer. The Purina company, too, is an ongoing suppor­ ter of Canine Vision, Mr. Chisholm says, supplying several dogs per year to the school, as well as all the dog food required by animals in training; Purina will also provide dog food free of charge to anyone using a guide dog over the dog’s entire working life, Mr. Chisholm says, while many local veterinarians will provide free medical care, or careatcost.toanyguidedogthey have as a client. All the dogs trained at Canine Vision are donated by breeders or just by interested persons, and nearly all are German Shepherds or Labrador Retrievers, both breeds known for their intelligence; more Labs are used because they are quieter and seem to suit more people, Mrs. Foran says. In her class at the school, she was the only one who got a German Shepherd, although he has never been told why: the new owners are carefully assessed both in their home environ­ ment and again at the school to make sure that the match is as perfect as possible before the dogs are allotted, she says. It costs about $6,000 to train each guide dog, but none of that is charged to the person applying for a dog. Any individual in need may apply to Canine Vision for assess­ ment, and some are referred by Lions Clubs in their communities. June herself was approached by the Blyth Lions Club soon after she was stricken with blindness, offering her the chance to take training at Canine Vision, but she turned it down. “I hadn’t had a dog for about 25 years, and Ijust wasn’t ready for it at the time,” she says. ‘‘You have to come to terms with your blindness yourself before you can take on anything else. It takes a lot of time, because you know you will be putting your life in the dog’s hands. It’sabig step.” It wasn’t until June went on a bus trip sponsored by the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CN1B) in July, 1987 which toured the Canine Vision School that she started to think seriously about applying for a Seeing Eye Dog. She did apply in October, 1987, but heard nothing until March, 1988, when a trainer from the school came to Blyth to assess her in her own home. Things moved quickly from then on, and in early June Mrs. Foran found herself at the Oakville School, worried to death over being in a strange place with strange people and strange dogs: she had never been away from home before, and was ready to come home after two days. Instead, she decided to stick it out, and within a few 13-hour days, exhausted but happy, she was matched with her beautiful Buddy, and the pair hit it off right from the start. Training involved learning to work with Buddy in the city setting, and it wasn't long before June felt confident that she could put her life in Buddy’s charge, even learning to take a bus downtown on her own, no small feat for a girl raised in the country! The pair were home again in Blyth three weeks to the day after June entered Canine Vision, and withinafewdayswerea familiar sight on the streets of the village, where it was Buddy who had to learn to adjust to a whole new way of life. ‘‘She never smelled some of the good old country smells we get here, and she had never seen snow before,’’June laughs. ‘‘She just went crazy at the first snowfall, she got soexcited that wcboth wound up in the middle of the field across from the house.” Now, thepair issoadept at getting around that many people in the village will swear that the little woman with the big dog must have somesightinordertonavigateso well. ‘‘But 1 don’t -- I just have my Buddy, and that’s all I’m ever going to need,” June says, while the big dog’s tail wags in agreement. Unskilled labour the same the world over another point Canadians would do well to ponder. Canadian unskilled labour is no better nor no worse than unskilled labourelsewhere in the world and it is a whole lot more expensive than most. Forthis reason it is going to continue to lose out on jobs requiring such labour when it can be done more cheaply else­ where. You can rant all you want about the evil effects of free trade, real or imaginary but nothing, including tariff walls, is going to prevent this global trend from sweeping over Canada. The smart ones in this country are the ones who are attempting to upgrade their skills so that they can fmd jobs in industries w here Cana­ dian firms have an honest chance of competing in an increasingly compe­ titive world. Wavinga Canadian flag is not going to do any good; people have to make a living everywhere and jobs are jobs to the Mexicans as much as they are to the Canadians. I feel sorry for the workers at Fleck; they have been caught in the vicious crossfire of competition and their leaders either failed or refused to.see the hand writin gon the wall when they walked out for higher wages. How much of this action was on advice from the above mentioned Bob White, I don’t know but, if it was, then he, too, has become something of an anachronism. Canada has got to realize that our industry has to run hard just to stay in the same place; if we want to get ahead, we have to run that much harder. I have been teaching this important fact in my economics classes for some years; I sure hope that somebody out there is listening!