Mr Daniell accuses his many critics of being "short on solutions". I guess he missed them all somehow so here are just a few: Stop letting SPCA employees breed and sell more animals on the side; stop selling sexually intact animals that are often used to breed more product for the SPCA's system; stop animal disposal contracting for money; teach employees more than how to "put down" animals - teach them animal health, behaviour and welfare; use the offers of other rescue groups to rehabilitate dogs, rather than spurn the "competition" and kill the dogs; stop spending so much money on head office salaries and perks, and lawyers to silence those critics, and spend it improving your "Alcatrazes for animals" (the term used by your own past-president); institute a feral cat trap/release program rather than just kill the cats - there are plenty of successful models being used by real animal welfare organizations; regulate the breeding of cats and dogs; urge the adoption of anti-chaining laws instead of working behind the scenes to block them when AAS asks for them.

Under years of pressure from Mr Daniell's critics the SPCA did stop the first two. And that's it. As for "open and accountable"? Last year, several BC SPCA Director resigned because of the impenetrable secrecy.

Until the SPCA offers the helpless animals in its "care" better than cells, cages, disease, isolation, depression, and death, it has no right to call its facilities shelters and no right to take in even one animal, much less 55,000 a year.

And if Mr Daniell believes that the AAS web site is "factually incorrect", why does the SPCA not ever point out our errors of fact so that we can correct them?

Judith Stone, President,
Animal Advocates Society of BC