News Item:
June 26/03
SPCA seized 130 animals from a hobby farm in Maple Ridge. A reindeer, a pot bellied pig, a chinchilla, ducks, rabbits etc were removed from Do-Little Petting Zoo farm.

News Item:
The Vancouver Sun, April 17/01
Exotic pet breeder probed over animal welfare
By Nicholas Read

The SPCA visited the property on Saturday, and will visit it again today. Pare said the constable on duty talked about seizing some of the animals, but in the end none was taken.
SPCA manager of field operations Shawn Eccles said they will want to ensure that she follows recommendations made to her by veterinarians.
How the SPCA handles this case will be watched closely in Maple Ridge after council decided last week to review the SPCA's performance in the community following complaints about how its shelter was run.

April 17/01
Letters editor,
Vancouver Sun

Ruth Pare is a brave woman who did the right thing by phoning the SPCA and AAS when she saw the deplorable conditions animal were being kept in at Silvia Rutledge's "facility". Where there is use of animals there will be abuse of animals, because keeping animals they way they deserve, and the paying public believes they are kept, impinges on the bottom line. Everyone who has ever hired a petting zoo, or paid to pet the animals, should go to where they are kept and see for themselves the cruelty their money is supporting.

Animal Advocates Society went. Ruth Pare did not trust the SPCA to act on behalf of these animals (she was right in this), and we video-taped what we saw: thin animals standing in mud, and their own manure, creatures in dirty, dark cages and pens, rabbits in a stifling trailer, many rodents in more trailers in dark, dirty cages, and the saddest of all, bins full of little ducklings kept in the dark.

There were no fields at Rutledge's, no place for these trapped creatures to run and play or live in any way a normal, healthy life. Just the misery of dirty, dark cages in between "cute" appearances at her petting zoo gigs in malls and at fairs.

Why is Rutledge still in business? She has been complained about for years to the SPCA. There is a lot of questioning of the SPCA, most recently in Maple Ridge itself. It's this pressure that is the best hope for all suffering animals.

Judy Stone, President,
Animal Advocates Society of BC