[nagdu] Guide dog dragged by SkyTrain touches hearts around the world

[Ginger Kutsch]

Guide dog dragged by SkyTrain touches hearts around the world
 Supporters donate to cover vet bills
 By Kim Pemberton, Vancouver Sun October 7, 2010   StoryPhotos (
2 ) 
 More Images >  Palm, a guide dog, is recovering from an accident
last week on the SkyTrain.
Photograph by: handout, Vancouver SunVANCOUVER - Donations from
dog-lovers worldwide are pouring in to help pay for veterinary
care for a guide dog that was dragged along a SkyTrain line and
seriously injured last week.
 
The vet bill for Palm, a five-year-old yellow Labrador, is
estimated to reach $15,000. So far, donations to Canada West
Veterinary Specialist and Critical Care Hospital, where the dog
is being treated, have contributed $10,000 toward the bill.
 
Palm had led her owner, Iris Thompson, who is blind, onto the
SkyTrain at the crowded Lougheed station on the morning of Sept.
30, when the dog stepped backwards off the train and onto the
platform. When the train pulled away, Palm was trapped by her
leash in the doorway, which did not automatically reopen.
 
She ran beside the train until she struck a metal pole and fell
onto the track. Horrified onlookers said Palm narrowly avoided
being hit by a second train before she was rescued by a man and
taken to an animal hospital.
 
Palm suffered a punctured lung, a huge skin wound, rib fractures
and a broken muzzle.
 
Thompson told Global News she was devastated by the accident and
questioned whether TransLink had adequate safety mechanisms in
place. 
 
TransLink spokesman Drew Snider said an independent adjudicator
contacted Thompson on Friday on behalf of TransLink to discuss
the situation but would not say whether the company would pay the
veterinary bill.
 
About 100 calls daily, from as far away as Maryland, Beijing and
Australia, are coming in to the vet hospital, said Amanda
Ferguson, an internal medicine assistant called in to help field
inquiries. 
 
Hospital administrator Sharon Brown said Palm is doing well.
"She's walking, eating, bright and alert."
 

kpemberton at vancouversun.com
 

URL:
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Guide+dragged+SkyTrain+tou
ches+hearts+around+world/3636206/story.html