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Langley may have cat killer, SPCA fears Three dead felines found in Brookswood last month MONIQUE TAMMINGA Times Reporter
Boaz JOSEPH/Black Press
Jonathan Pichette, 17, tends to horse Rio at the end of a six-week therapeutic horse program at a Langley farm. The program is part of Surrey Memorial Hospital’s Adolescent Day Treatment Program for youth who are struggling with psychiatric difficulties.
A new kind of horse power MONIQUE TAMMINGA Times Reporter
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or teens living with mental illness, their world can feel out of control at times. At other times it can be frustrating and isolating. But a new program that brings teens together with rescue horses gives youth with mental health issues a new sense of empowerment and a bond with some special “gentle giants.” On Monday, Rachelle Sall, 15, and Jonathan Pichette, 17, graduated from a six-week program at Langley’s Healing Heart Sanctuary where the two teens, who have mental health issues, learned to lead horses. “I’ve learned a lot about myself. “I really learned how to control my emotions,” said Pichette. “When I had to pick up a horse’s hoof I was really anxious about it, but I had to control my
fear. I told the horse that I was anxious but I will do this.” He explained that the “more you accept your emotions, the more willing the horse is to work with you.” Later, he showed how he calmed Rio, by putting his hand where the horse’s heart is and putting a hand on his own heart at the same time. Breathing deep breaths through the belly, a horse will synch up his breathing with the human and soon Rio’s head lowered, his eyelids drooped and his ears came forward. Pichette had relaxed the horse. The Surrey teen has found the program so rewarding that he has began volunteering at the Aldergrove horse ranch. Linda-Ann Bowling, Healing Heart Sanctuary owner and facilitator of the therapeutic horse program she calls ‘Youth with a Purpose … a New Kind of Horsepower,’ said horses are highly intuitive and react to the energy people
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give off. “Horses are sensitive animals and respond to people’s emotions, moods, and non-verbal language,” said Bowling. “Through their work with the horses, youth learn healthy boundaries, responsibility, assertiveness and a variety of ways of interacting more positively with others.” The youth don’t actually ride the rescue horses, but form a leadership role with the large animals, bonding with them by grooming and taking them through obstacle courses. The youth participating in the horse power program come from the Adolescent Day Treatment Centre in Surrey, which supports teens, aged 13 to 18, who are experiencing severe psychiatric difficulties such as psychotic, mood and anxiety disorders. They are also struggling with their academic, family, and social functioning.
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Maple Ridge isn’t the only community dealing with a potential cat killer. Three cats have been killed in the Brookswood area in May, said SPCA’s Lorie Chortyk. Langley RCMP are also investigating, but the SPCA is the lead agency in the case. These cats have died under “suspicious circumstances” and most likely at the hands of a human, not an animal, she said. This isn’t the first time Brookswood has had reports of a cat killer. In March, a cat was dismembered. The SPCA isn’t ruling out that a coyote could have caused a few of these deaths, because the attacks can look similar. But they do fear these felines died at the hands of a disturbed person. In Maple Ridge, more than 20 cats have been killed in a year, with nine mutilated in the past two weeks. The killer is placing cat heads on people’s porches, one in a plastic bag. continued, PAGE 7
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