----- Original Message -----
From: Nikki
To: info@spca.bc.ca
Cc: ianeditor@dccnet.com ; sunnewstips@pacpress.southam.ca ; Jasmine Morgan ; pjbest@telus.net
Sent: Friday, July 25, 2003 9:12 AM
Subject: ATTENTION:The Board of Directors SPCA

Hello:

My name is Nikki Boechler and I have been a supporter of the SPCA for years. In fact I took part in our local SPCA Walkathon in the pouring rain last year with both of my dogs.

For the past month or so I’ve been fostering a Chihuahua that was seized from a “hobby farm” in Chilliwack. The dog I was fostering, as well as all the others is being returned to the owner because apparently the owner has come up with the $11, 000.00 dollars in fees she had been charged. We were assured that this was going to court for a possession order...like good citizens we have all returned the dogs to the local SPCA, but being in a small community my mother in law decided to try and track down the other fosters and found out that the dogs are actually being returned because she’s paid her “FEE” to the SPCA. That fee would be $1,100 per dog and I’m not sure where that expense comes from as I took the dog and didn’t receive anything else from the SPCA in order to care for her. I supplied her food, water, shelter, etc. But that’s not really the point. Your press clippings even quoted Eileen Driver, a senior SPCA enforcement officer talking about they shameful conditions that these dogs were living under. I have been living under the illusion that your job was to protect animals.... not charge a boarding fee than ship them back. Tell me what I can do to help change the laws so these poor helpless animals will not continue to be used as financial pawns! When the conditions at this hobby farm are bad again and there is a phone call to have the dogs taken, all that will happen to the owner is a fine, she knows that. How will that make the situation better? The victim is not the owner, the SPCA or myself, the victims are the dogs.

We were also told that the SPCA doesn’t really have the means to go to court and fight these puppy mills or hobby farms. It would have cost nothing to have myself or any of the others that were fostering to get up on the stand and tell what sort of condition the dogs were in when we got them. The dog I was fostering for example was so malnourished and not exercised that she was well under what her normal weight should be. She chewed her paws incessantly and her ears were so chapped I didn’t think that they were even supposed to have fur on them. After a month of being away from the “hobby farm” her ears are covered in fur and all the chapping has cleared up.

I am forwarding this email to my local newspaper as well as other people who have been outraged by this situation. I do expect a response and would like to be kept in touch about this matter.

Regards,
Nikki Boechler
Gibsons, BC