AAS's opinion of what constitutes a puppy mill is comprehensive and fair.

Ironically, I found myself thinking about SPCA facilities as I went through the common characteristics of the average puppy mill. Consider these attribute of a basic puppy mill as described by AAS:

"A puppy miller treats highly social dogs as livestock by: keeping in pens, isolated from interactions with humans, isolated from interactions with all but a few dogs, no novelty, no social stimulation, very little exercise".
How many SPCAs keep all the dogs in cages, day and night? Concrete floors and a chain link social barrier between any passing humans and other dogs. And very little exercise, provided only erratically by volunteer dogwalkers.

"A puppy miller sells dogs to strangers."
So does the SPCA. But worse, it now holds contests to see which branch can sell the most.

"A puppy miller does not keep its facility free of communicable diseases such as parvovirus and distemper."
Our SPCA branch in Vernon has had three outbreaks of Parvovirus this year alone (this according to a volunteer who was forced to bring to the attention of staff a pup who had suffered bloody diarrhea for two days, yet had gone untreated). Feline upper respiratory disease is rampant and dozens of cats are euthanized rather than treated because of it. In the short time I have lived in Vernon, the Vernon SPCA has been closed twice that I know of because of feline distemper, and many cats killed.

I would like to be able to say that the SPCA at least differs from puppy mills in that it does not breed animals, but Kelowna branch allowed 3 litters of pups to be conceived within its facility last year. These pups were conceived by dogs it had seized from a puppy mill. Those who survived were sold by the SPCA. Likely to strangers.

The National Companion Animal Coalition (NCAC) includes in its definition of a puppy mill facilities which practice:

"substandard animal care, treatment and/or socialization".

Well, that phrase describes almost every SPCA branch I've ever been to. And it doesn't matter if the staff are nice and all the volunteers are diligent. A cage is a cage. Overcrowding and cages cause distress. Distress results in disease susceptability and sickness, as well as behavioural abnormalities.

As long as the SPCA practices an unlimited intake policy and insists on allowing the overcrowding of its facilities, its conditions will remain no better than the average puppy mill. In fact, I have been to some puppy mills that smell better, look better, and have happier dogs than our local SPCA.

Several months ago, Vernon branch took in two litters of 5 week old Akita mix puppies, 19 pups in all that I counted. I visited several times, at different times of the day. Each time I saw two concrete runs, layered in trampled feces, no blankets, and a pile of huddled pups 9 or 10 in each run.
I can honestly say that I 've been to puppy mills that provide better care than that. To make matters worse, a staff person told me that the SPCA had OFFERED to take the pups from the home they were in and "adopt" them out.

It's time the SPCA took on only the number of animals it can care for humanely. Animal welfare is not about numbers and contests and adoptathons. It's about stopping the suffering. If animals are suffering in the care of those who purport to be rescuing them, then something is wrong. Animals suffer in SPCAs. SPCA facilities cause despair and disease. Something is terribly wrong.

So far the BC SPCA has refused to consider putting a stop to the abomination that is unlimited surrender. So its facilities remain crowded and inhumane, and it is forced to continue killing animals.

But it must consider this: given that its facilities are crowded and inhumane, and are too often death row for suffering animals, how can it promote animal welfare and prosecute animal neglectors when its own backyard is so dirty and sullied? The SPCA has seized animals and brought charges before Crown, yet in many cases the seized animals are merely going from a familiar cage to a strange cage. And in some cases the seized animals receive worse care than they did with their abuser. And in some cases the animals reproduce while under SPCA care. And in many cases the animals are either killed by the SPCA or sold back to the abuser. This is called "returned for payment of seizure costs".

What a complex game it all is. But the bottom line is that the animals suffer at the hands of the neglector as well as at the hands of the "rescuer", the SPCA. Why? Because both have the same bottom line, both are a business. Puppy millers sell dogs. The SPCA sells dogs. Animal retail comes in different forms, just like all retail. Some is new, some is used.

But puppy mills don't claim to be animal loving. They just produce puppies. The SPCA sells dogs but it also sells an image. It sells the image that it is speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves. And the public often buys it, which is most unfortunate for the animals.

Until the BC SPCA strikes unlimited surrender from its mandate, it will remain an overcrowded prison system for animals. Until the BC SPCA strikes unlimited surrender from its mandate, it will not be able to do true humane work, to house and rehabilitate seized animals. Until the BC SPCA strikes unlimited surrender from its mandate, it will remain self serving, not animal serving, and will not be able to "speak for those who cannot speak for themselves" as it will be too busy running its second hand pet retail outlets, shelving overstock items and killing spoiled goods. Until the BC SPCA strikes unlimited surrender from its mandate it will not be able to raise the standards of many of its facilities above those of some puppy mills.

Jennifer Dickson
President, Okanagan Animal Welfare Foundation
Vernon BC