Big Heart Rescue of Maple Ridge recently was phoned by a person wishing to surrender their dog who had been told by the Surrey SPCA to phone Big Heart.

That's all we know. But it is heartening to think that the Surrey SPCA may have turned away a dog that they knew they didn't have the space or time for and may have had to kill.

We hope that these two examples presage a provincewide change in a policy that results in mass euthanasias, death by despair in the branches, disease and overcrowding, and the entrenchment in society of a throwaway ethic.