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FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 2015
Already a busy year for Tollie Fund
Delta Community Animal Shelter uses initiative to pay for treatments not normally covered in regular budget BY
SANDOR GYARMATI
SCAN WITH
sgyarmati@delta-optimist.com
It’s already been a busy year for the Delta Community Animal Shelter’s Tollie Fund. Created in 2009 in response to overwhelming public support for the medical treatment of an 11month old puppy named Tollie, the fund provides for a wide range medical and dental procedures for animals, costly efforts that aren’t normally covered in the regular medical budget. Coming entirely from community donations with none of the money going to administration, the fund this year has seen many animals in need of extra attention and care, which they may not be able to get at other animals shelters. “We want them to be as healthy as possible when they start their new life and we don’t want it to be a burden on their new owners, if at all possible,” said shelter manager Sarah Jones. The DCAS so far this year spent more than $7,500 on dental care alone for dogs and cats, each procedure costing between $600 and $1,150. Thanks to the fund, 30 kittens that arrived at the shel-
TO REVEAL PHOTOS & VIDEO
Delta Community Animal Shelter vet tech Brittanee Cornett with diabetic cat Titan. ter were successfully treated for the panleukopenia virus, which in most cases is fatal.
Some of the other current examples of the need for the fund include a 12-year-old Tibetan
PHOTO BY
GORD GOBLE
Spaniel named Snuggles getting a double mastectomy, which saved the dog’s life; and the case of a
two-year-old cat named Herbie, a friendly feline who has been receiving care for a leg problem and will need to have it amputated. Animals in similar situations at other shelter facilities that don’t have the money or resources to treat such animals may end up euthanized. The fund helps pay for the treatment of diabetes, injury caused by vehicles or other animals, respiratory illness, broken bones or joint issues, behavioral issues and other care. The money is also used for special travel boxes that help reduce stress for cats and for the spaying or neutering of feral cats that are then made available for adoption as barn cats. The shelter, which recently received a generous $10,000 donation from local resident Linda McKay for the Tollie Fund, is asking residents to continue supporting the special fund to give animals a better chance at life and finding forever homes. Tax receipts are issued for donations over $20. For more information, call the shelter, municipal hall, or check deltacommunityanimalshelter.ca.
Conviction for fifth person charged in Dobbs murder BY
JESSICA KERR
jkerr@delta-optimist.com
The fifth and final person charged in the 2007 murder of a South Delta man in California has been convicted. Robert Lee Dunson, 33, was the last of the five suspects to be tried in the beating and murder of well-known Tsawwassen businessman Bill Dobbs. On Tuesday, he was found guilty of first-degree
murder in the November 2007 slaying in Indio, California, where Dobbs and his common-law wife Toni Dawson has just purchased a vacation home. The sentencing phase of the trial is set to begin April 8 and Dunson could face the death penalty. “He belongs on death row,” Dawson said of Dunson. “He was the one who slit Billy’s throat while he was alive.”
Dawson said she testified at the beginning of the trial in California, but had to return to B.C. — finding the brutal details of her partner’s death too disturbing to sit through. In 2012, Dunson’s four coaccused — Jackie Lynn Dunson, Robert Dunson’s sister, Fernando Antonio Benavidez, Ronald Wesley Handwerk and Rogelio Leon Zuniga — were all convicted and sentenced to life in prison
with no chance of parole. “This has been going on for so long and it is a relief now that it is over,” Dawson said of the last trial. Dobbs, 48, and Dawson were vacationing in the area when Dobbs was found murdered on the side of the road. He was last seen alive leaving the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino with another man, later identified as Fernando Antonio Benavidez,
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at around 3:45 a.m. on Nov. 26, 2007. A passing motorist found his body on the side of an Indio road the next day. He had been beaten and his throat had been slashed. The avid golfer was a longtime member of the Beach Grove Golf Club. He had two grown children and a grandson. Dobbs had a family-owned window cleaning and janitorial company. With files from the Province
MARK SCHOEFFEL, Investment Advisor and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® 1226 56 Street, Delta, BC V4L 2A4 t. 604.943.1797 m. 778.836.0796 e. mark.schoeffel@holliswealth.com HollisWealth is a division of Scotia Capital Inc., a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund and the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada. TM Trademark of The Bank of Nova Scotia, used under license.