Oct 22nd 2009
CJ Arabia
I am sitting with actress Linda Blair in the back yard of her
WorldHeart Foundation animal sanctuary, at the base of a mountain in the high desert of Southern California, just outside of Los Angeles. A worker walks by with a great, big, beautiful mutt. "That's Hank," Blair says, indicating the big dog. "He came from a hoarder. His teeth were filed down." I ask her why someone would want to file down a dog's teeth. She tells me it's done to prevent dogs from damaging each other when tossed into packs. Hank's former owner had filed down the big dog's teeth in a shed in the back of his property, without any medical supervision. But the big dog seems happy now as he shows me his smile.
Blair began rescuing dogs in 1997, following the death of her mother and two pets. Though devastated by her loss, she focused her grief into achieving something positive. "I started walking [into] shelters and rescuing anywhere from two to five dogs, putting them in a kennel, going every day to walk them and take care of them. I made signs and fliers and put them up at pet stores, handed them out. All that and working."
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