'Both the SPCA and CFIA started inspections based on our report. But Lifeforce was surprised to hear that the BCSPCA said they never found any of the abuses that Lifeforce uncovered. The animal abusers were not investigated even though Lifeforce had meticulously documented date, time, pen numbers and animal numbers? We were disappointed that the SPCA will to continue to do business with the auction owner to use "compromised animals" for training of emergency response personal.'

For many decades the BC SPCA sold seized livestock, animals it claimed in the media and to the public to have "heroically rescued" from abusers, through auction houses and independent meat dealers, like Walter Ulansky of Vernon, all over BC. We have a document that proves this but it was a well-known fact to most farmers and horse owners.

In my opinion, it's not reasonable to think that in all those decades the SPCA didn't see all the things that Peter Hamilton documented. Has there ever been an SPCA cruelty seizure from one of the auction houses the SPCA uses to flip livestock through for quick cash? It's clear from witnesses and Lifeforce's documentation that many animals are in distress, some may even be in critical distress (which under the PCA Act would mean that the SPCA would have to euthanize the animals, thereby killing an animal that is worth money to the auction house). Distress and critical distress are offences under the PCA Act, yet the SPCA actually does business with these places.

The perception of a conflict of interest is valid: the Society to Prevent Cruelty to Animals, the statutory enforcer of the PCA Act, is doing business with people who permit infractions of the Act the SPCA is supposed to enforce. It does enforce the Act all the time, most often against puppymillers whose very name elicits revulsion and then donations from animal lovers.

It has seized livestock from some farmers, but it also allowed critical distress to go on for weeks as in the case of a cow with a broken leg on a Native Reserve near Vernon. The agony that cow was allowed to suffer was described to us in the most piteous terms. When the cow's suffering was finally brought to the attention of the media, only then did the SPCA act.

The SPCA has made media-grabbing seizures of horse and cattle from the father and the uncle of the Solicitor General of BC, John van Dongen. Both cases failed in the courts. Q.C. van Dongen's seized cattle had been stored by the SPCA at the Fraser Valley Auction House where they contracted "strangles" a disease which caused the death of some of van Dongen's seized cattle.

What reasons could the BC SPCA have for leaving auction houses alone? There is a long history of deals between the SPCA and auction houses. How many livestock has the SPCA killed or sold through auction houses?

I believe those are two of many questions that the public has the right to an answer to, so it can make informed choices of which animal welfare groups to give its money to.

Read Q.C. van Dongen (the Minister's father) case: http://www.animaladvocates.com/seizures/qc-vandongen/
Read John van Dongen (the Minister's uncle) case: http://www.animaladvocates.com/seizures/john-vandongen/