Craig Daniell, in his maiden speech as Acting CEO for the BC SPCA states: "we accomplish miracles every single day in our shelters".

All I can ask is, what miracles? Specifically?

Recently Mr. Daniell and I briefly discussed conditions at SPCA facilities, and he attempted to get me to admit that Vernon branch, where I live, is a nice branch, certainly one of the better ones. I said nothing, and when he pressed the issue, I could only answer "Well...structurally, I guess."

But what I couldn't seem to impress upon him was that a cage is a cage, and an overcrowded modern facility is just as stressful and damaging to the animals it warehouses as is a dingy old facility. Dogs and cats don't care if their cage is shiny stainless steel or rusty old metal. To them it's a cage. Only humans care about appearances.

I hope that Mr. Daniell and the Board of Directors are not satisfied with the archaic method of imprisoning rows upon rows of sentient beings in their facilities. I hope that the BC SPCA Board and Executive have set their sights upon a more progressive and humane way of housing animals in their care, on adopting standards that involve less caging and more interaction.

But these standards are impossible to adopt and implement as long as the BC SPCA continues to allow unlimited surrender. Unlimited surrender means it must accept more animals than it can adequately care for, and unlimited surrender means it must accept potentially dangerous animals. And as long as this is the case, the SPCA will have to use cages to keep everything under control. But no miracles happen in a warehouse full of caged animals.

There are two pictures, that whenever I look at hem, illustrate this argument perfectly.

They are pictures of a dog who spent five days in the Vernon SPCA. He was fearful to begin with, and only regressed, in his cage, despite the fact that he had food, water, shelter, toys, and a nice big blanket. His cage was as cozy and hospitable as any SPCA could make it, yet it was still a cage, and undersocialized to begin with, he grew worse, and withdrew further into fear behind the bars.

He became so fearful and withdrawn that a caring staff member adopted him out to me a day early, as the CAMP assessors were coming up from the Coast the next day, and in this staff member's opinion, as well as in the opinion of one of the senior staff: "He's a nice dog with a lot of potential, but he's not going to pass his assessment."

So I brought him home and let him him explore his new home on his own, let him gain confidence at his own pace, gave him attention when he sought it, and his space when he needed it. I asked nothing of him, as he was not ready. The nice SPCA staff person who let me save him from the CAMP assessors told me that all he needed was a little obedience training. Well, after a year of simple confidence building through allowing him to just be a dog and have fun, now he is ready for obedience training. He was in no state to handle obedience training when he came out of the SPCA. He was afraid of floors, doorways, stairs, men, noises, vehicles, his own shadow. An obedience class would have been disasterous. A heartfelt, but naive suggestion on the part of this staff person.

Which reminds me that along with less cages, the SPCA needs to hire more staff who understand animal behaviour before "miracles" will happen at all, let alone every day in the branches.

The picture below is of Finnigan after four days in the Vernon SPCA. The only miracle is that an SPCA staff person cared enough to sneak him out to me before the CAMP assessors arrived.

Jennifer Dickson
Vernon BC
Read previous posts on this subject: BC SPCA boasts of "miracles in the branches"
http://www.animaladvocates.com/cgi-bin/newsroom.pl/read/2909

FINNIGAN IS READY FOR ADOPTION. See http://www.animaladvocates.com/adopt-dog.htm

This is Finnigan at the Vernon SPCA...