Reports detail that the BC SPCA returned ten dogs to a puppy mill, unaltered, for as much as possibly $11,000.

The SPCA claims that $1,000+ per dog is to cover the costs of the seizure.

As a person who has personally rehabilitated puppy mill dogs for years, I am familiar with the average veterinary costs involved in bringing puppy mill dogs back to optimum health.

The primary cost is for sterilization. Females range from $110-150 to spay, males $100-130 to neuter. (But none of the dogs was sterilized, they were returned intact to the breeder)

Deworming $10-20.

Defleaing $10-20.

Other parasites (i.e. ear mites) $10-20.

Grooming, if not done by myself, or in the SPCA's case, a volunteer, $30-50.

Veterinary physical examinations $40-60

Often puppy mill dogs are in need of dental work, as was reported with regards to the Chilliwack dogs. An average dental workup runs between $175-300. This would include anaesthetic, scaling and polishing, extractions, and antibiotics. These dogs' teeth were very small and very rotten and would have come out easily.

So, to add costs together generously, the SPCA MAY have spent $450-500 maximum in each of these dogs. We know none were sterilized, so cost of sterilization is not included. And we have not heard that every dog needed the most expensive (dental) work done.

It is doubtful that the SPCA spent $450-500 per dog on rehabilitation costs, but even if it did, that still leaves $600-650 per dog unaccounted for if the $11,000 figure that the SPCA gave the foster families is close.

The dogs were placed in foster care almost immediately, so the SPCA did not want for cost of food or suffer from occupied kennels that could better be filled with marketable dogs, unfettered by legal ties and ready to sell.

Worst of all (for the dogs), the BC SPCA did not even have the expense of applying to the courts for an order of custody.

In my opinion, the SPCA has betrayed these dogs by returning them, has ripped off not only the foster families who cared for them, and the donating public who doles out cash to the SPCA to truly help them, but also the owner who had to fork out as much as possibly $11,000 to the Society For Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in order to have the animals returned, unaltered, so that she can continue to exploit them for her own gain.

So everyone profits here I suppose, except the dogs and the selflessly devoted foster families who were forced to send them back.

What a shame.

Jennifer Dickson
Okanagan Animal Welfare Foundation
Vernon BC