Cross-posted from CYA on 10/8/2003 at 05:23:56 PM by Heather Petit

Denis Edwards was, until today, a hard-working volunteer and generous donor at the Vernon Branch. He phoned me this morning to say that he had been "fired" and that volunteers would no longer be permitted to help with the cleaning of cat cages. When he turned up this morning to put in his usual three hours of cleaning, he was told that the staff had decided that volunteers were responsible for the disease problem at the horribly overcrowded shelter. Denis was devastated. He is a dedicated, conscientious, responsible volunteer who does his best to help the animals in a shelter where 7 cats are crammed into one cage, where staff members have failed to notice a dead kitten in a cage with others or to recognize a heavily pregnant cat [ which Denis brought to their attention, only to be told that the staff had believed the cat was an overweight male. ]

Before November 2001, incompetent volunteer boards were used as the excuse for DB's empire building. Now, are individual volunteers to be blamed for the results of the BC SPCA's years of refusing to mount an aggressive spay/neuter campaign?

In January 2002, the interim BC SPCA BoD voted unanimously to suspend the warrant of the Vernon Branch. Since January 2002, Vernon members have been denied any voice in BC SPCA decision making. We have no CAC. We have no Regional Councillor. Regional Director Kim Evans refuses to answer any emails from Vernon members. Regional Manager Robert Busch does nothing but refer Vernon members' concerns to Ms. Evans.

Our shelter is being destroyed because our members dared to point out the holes in DB's imperial plan and to warn other branches of future problems which would and HAVE come to pass, and because DB's sidekicks are still setting BC SPCA policy.

In my opinion, Michael Steven, Pat Cutler, Mary Lou Troman, Randy Reynolds, Norma LePage and those of you who voted for this mess in November 2001 are directly to blame for the present suffering of the animals in the Vernon shelter and the anguish of all of us who built and maintained that shelter for so many years.