August 17, 2003

Re: Mistreated Animals Returned to Owner.

As one of the foster parents of these dogs I would like to address the letter sent in by Tim Kenna, Manager of the Sunshine Coast SPCA.

With all due respect to Tim and the very dedicated staff at our local SPCA, I still must question the statements made by the SPCA and especially Senior Officer Eileen Drever.

I find it hard to believe that the SPCA will have a strong case against the owner of these dogs, when Ms. Drever consistently downplays the condition of the dogs.

First, of all Karen Raffle is not a pet owner but operates a small puppy mill, the SPCA likes to call it a “Hobby Farm” but a puppy mill is a puppy mill. She owns between 10 to 15 dogs which are kept in crates in her barn in the dark and bred constantly until they are to old or too sick. These dogs were reported to the SPCA by a Dog rescue organization that answered an ad in the local paper for “Free Dogs to Give Away”. This back yard breeders or puppy millers will breed a dog for years then when it serves no purpose they give them away to anyone. The lady that made the call to the SPCA rescued a few before the raid by the SPCA. I will forward pictures of one of the dogs and you can clearly see it has chewed the fur off it’s rear end due to fleas. Dogs that are infested in fleas will get hotspots in their rear because they chew and chew until they are bare and usually gets infected. I can not believe Ms. Drever claims they had no fleas.

Also stated is the misconception that the local SPCA received $11, 000.00 dollars from the breeder. We never stated that the money was given to the local SPCA...but a large sum or “bail” close to that amount was paid to the BC SPCA.

Some of the foster parents and The Animal Advocate Society have spoken to the breeder in an attempt to buy back the dogs and were told that the dollar value of the “fees” was in that range.

Tim Kenna, our local manager and the staff here on the Coast are a dedicated crew and as Tim stated they have limitations due to the laws, which sorely need updating.

Craig Daniel, the CEO of the BC SPCA was to meet with us and we are still waiting for that meeting to happen.

Public outrage at the return of these dogs, that are nothing more than easy money makers for the breeder will help to stop this horrible misuse of dogs. I can not stress enough that these dogs are not pets, they do not see a vet on a regular basis if ever , are not given the FIVE FREEDOMS set out in BC SPCA policy. Which includes food, clean water and freedoms to play and socialize.

Why are bylaws not enforced on how many dogs these people own, why are these people not being charged with tax evasion...this “Hobby Farm” owned by Karen Raffle generates a lot of unclaimed revenue.

These dogs will always be mistreated and need to be taken away and placed with loving families not released on “bail” when the owner forks over a large amount of cash.

Patricia Josh Best