“If there is a problem, the best way to address it is to talk about it. Cover-ups cause people to lose faith and question an organization's honesty. Refusals to disclose information only make people assume the worst.” I said this to the BCSPCA years ago. It’s simple, self-evident common sense! So what’s up with the BCSPCA? I can only assume the worst.

Some years ago I was invited to join a small group of people in campaigning for SPCA accountability. The group called itself CYA (Citizens Yell for Accountability). Most of the group had volunteered for the SPCA and become disillusioned. They were bright and dedicated people. Coincidentally, after coming together as a group, they learned that they had all been recognized by the SPCA with awards for exceptional effort. It was too funny. Even the SPCA recognized their dedication.

CYA had a web site, the hub of which was a message board where insiders could post what they knew about the SPCA without fear of retribution, ie anonymously. While a good idea in concept, it failed to account for human nature. The privilege of anonymity was abused and people posted frivolous and inflammatory postings. The CYA people dealt with this as well as they could for as long as they could, pulling postings and pleading with posters to be reasonable and adult. Information was being revealed by insiders that could have led to change and we didn’t want to lose this opportunity for the truth to come out. But nobody had time to moderate the message board sufficiently. Nobody had time to research and verify all information such that it could stand up in a court. Inevitably, CYA received a letter from the SPCA lawyers threatening a libel suit over some trivial, irrelevant scrap of gossip that was posted ill-advisedly.

I always thought that if the SPCA threatened CYA with a law suit, it would be for the information coming out about the SPCA. I thought, bring it on! The allegations can be proved and problems can then be addressed. I’ve always thought that there’s nothing to fear from the truth. If CYA was wrong about the SPCA, then it would be a relief to know that the very best was in fact being done for the animals. I could rest easy. If CYA was right, let it come out in the open and get fixed. (Okay, maybe I’m simple-minded.) Anyway, the scrap of information that the SPCA finally latched onto for threatening CYA was so trivial, so irrelevant to animal welfare, so pointless to post that it felt like a punch to my gut. Legally, they had us. We all opened our wallets and paid a lawyer to respond. We did what we legally had to do to make things right. Then I suggested changing the message board to a ‘bulletin board’ where relevant information could still be posted without the willy nilly free-for-all that the message board had become. Unfortunately, none of the core of posters who had inside information, who were intelligent, informed, committed, and reliable, came forward with more information. CYA died. It seems the SPCA had succeeded in shutting the group down. And the SPCA itself barreled on as it always has. The law doesn’t protect the innocent, it protects the powerful. (Simple-minded volunteer is now jaded volunteer.)

Go AAS! Your courage and commitment take my breath away.