Friday, November 07, 2003

SPCA shelter loses staff

By Nick Riley

The phone has been ringing off the hook as volunteers and staff at the Maple Ridge Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals shelter struggle to deal with the seasonal influx of cats and kittens, along with the daily stream of calls from residents reporting possible cruelty, abandoned pets or lost and found animals.

Those on the front lines at the shelter are also nervous and upset, concerned about the effects recent job cuts will have on the many animals crying out for attention in the shelter.

Addressing a multi-million-dollar deficit, the B.C. SPCA announced "drastic measures" to balance the books - including 20 layoffs in the Lower Mainland area along with cutbacks to shelter hours.

Although the Maple Ridge shelter escaped with its hours intact, one senior full-time staff member responsible for local cruelty investigations has been laid off.

One worker at the shelter, who did not want to be identified, said the cutbacks by the BC SPCA head office will put even more demands on an already over-burdened work force locally, and is worried about the animals they are trying to protect.

"This is a tough time, no organization likes to let people go...it's a heart-wrenching thing to have to do," said Lorie Chortyk, general manager of community relations for BC SPCA. "The people we've had to let go are quality individuals...but we only have so many options available to us."

Chortyk said those options were few when considering their mounting bills from veterinary care and sheltering, rehabilitation, spay/neuter services and cruelty investigations. She said the provincial SPCA posted a $4.5 million deficit last year, and expects to lose between $2 and $3 million in 2003.

"Many people don't realize how enormously expensive it is to care for the volume of injured and abandoned animals that the SPCA takes in every day," says acting CEO Craig Daniell. "The expenses we've incurred in our deficit have been for important activities at the heart of our mission. Nevertheless the growth in our front-line service costs has increased much more rapidly than our growth in income and this level of spending is unsustainable."

The Maple Ridge shelter - an office of now three full time and three part-time employees - will no longer have an on-site cruelty investigator after the layoff. The "road work" will now be handled by regional Special Provincial Constables. There will be six or seven new animal protection officers for the Lower Mainland area, according to Chortyk, which will be hired to carry out the cruelty investigations previously handled by shelter staff. The remaining staff in Maple Ridge will consist of reception workers and support staff to take of the animals at the shelter.

"We don't want to ever be turning away animals in need, but as a charity we are dependent on donations. If the community wants to see bigger things there, then fabulous, but the community needs to come forward," Chortyk said. "We're the safety net for the animals, and we want to see more staff too, but it has to come from the community because we have to pay veterinary costs."

The SPCA acting CEO also put the blame on the union wages paid to staff, which Daniell said make "significantly higher wages" than other staff in the province.

"We cannot sustain these salary levels in a charity without impacting the number of staff we can afford to hire," he said.

The union representing the Lower Mainland SPCA staff, CUPE Local 1622, said it plans to file grievances against the staff cutbacks.

Each year the BC SPCA cares for more than 60,000 homeless and abused animals through services such as cruelty investigations, sheltering and adoptions, wildlife rehabilitation, emergency rescue and treatment, and farm animal protection. On any given day the SPCA provides food, shelter, veterinarian care and rehabilitation for more than 4,000 animals around the province, ranging from dogs and cats, to livestock, primates, rabbits, exotic birds, reptiles and other animals.

w The local shelter is currently in desperate need of canned food for the many cats awaiting adoption, and also are always in need of kitten food in dry or canned form. Please call the Maple Ridge SPCA at 463-9511 for more information.

http://www.mrtimes.com/111203/news/111203nn1.html

Animals will feel these cuts

On Thursday, the SPCA announced layoffs and service cutbacks at shelters.

The Maple Ridge shelter in Albion was not spared the axe. One front-line staff member was cut, although the shelter hours will apparently remain unaffected.

The reason for this sudden, unexpected action was the revelation that the animal protection agency is mired in debt.

The budget deficit is the last straw as far as we're concerned. This organization is a rudderless ship heading for a giant iceberg.

And the animals will be the ones going down with the ship.

The SPCA has been a disorganized mess, with too many changes in leadership and direction. There was the sudden moratorium on euthanizing animals, a move made without any planning for the backlog of animals it would produce. There have been annoucements of regional shelters that haven't come to fruition, as well as confusing policy statements about which direction the SPCA is heading.

Now the local shelter will have one less staff member at a time when it can't keep up with the workload it already has.

The SPCA has been hurt by its management changes - changes resulting in huge buyouts. Perhaps an independent auditor could get to the bottom of where the organization is wasting its money.

In the meantime, the public can help by spaying and neutering their animals. No sense in adding to the workload.

http://www.mrtimes.com/111203/opinion/111203op1.html

MR Times