We agree that the SPCA should have clinics of its own as long as it stays in the pet shuffling business. Selling intact "breeding stock" is blatantly counter to its mandate. Selling them with pre-paid vouchers is hardly any better. In Victoria 30% of owners do not redeem the voucher, and to assume the best case scenario, that the owners threw away $35 or $50 by just not using the voucher even though they had their pet sterilized, is irrational.

In other parts of the province, the redemption rate may be as low as under 50%.

But the voucher sytem does line the SPCA's pockets. Every pre-paid voucher not redeemed is money the SPCA gets to keep.