Surrey Leader.
"FLOOD OF PAPER AND PETS" by Dan Ferguson, staff reporter.

A new policiy designed to reduce the number of animals put down by the SPCA
has become a paper headache for staff at the Surrey animal shelter, who must
now fill out an 11 page written assessment for every animal.

The new requirement is part of a BC wide moratorium on destroying shelter
animals (except for medical reasons) announced by the provincial
headquarters last month - a decision that effectively bans euthanizing
animals because a shelter has run out of room.

The assessment form is intended to ensure no adoptable animals are put down,
but it is a time-consuming process, local SPCA Supt. Hugh Nichols
complained.

"It takes about an hour an animal," Nichols told the Leader.

The assessment is also supposed to be repeated once a week as long as an
animal is in custody, Nichols siad.

"The reality is, it's not getting done."

After weeks of complaining to the provincial head office in Vancouver,
Nichols said he finally got another person sent out to help carry out
assessments and reduce the paper backlong on Monday.

Before the assessment forms were introduced, informal assessments were
carried out by kennel keepers at the shelter, Nichols said.

Provncial SPCA spoikeperson Lorie Chortyk predicts the struggle with the new
assessment form will ease as the Surrey staff and other BC shelters get used
to the new system.

"It's a learning curve," Chortyk siad.

We're in a transition period where we have to train people (how to fill out
the forms)."

Choryk said other SPCA animal shelters with fewer staff and more animals
than Surrey appear to be managing.

While the new forms do mean more work, they will prevent the destruction of
adoptable animals, Chortyk said.

Adding to the pressure on the Surrey shelter - the busiest SPCA facility in
the Lower Mainland - has been an increase in the number of animals at the
already overcrowded shelter in the wake of the moratorium.

The shelter, which has 20 dog kennels and 30 cat cages to accomodate
animals, had 56 dogs and 93 cats waiting for adoption as of Monday, more
than double the numbers a month earlier, when there were 53 dogs and 39 cats
at the shelter.

Nichols said a deperate crunch has been averted by an increase in the number
of volunteer foster parents willing to keep animals in their homes.

"I've got 13 dogs and 54 cats in foster care, " Nichols said.

"That's far more than we would normally have."

Even so, dogs are still being double-penned at the Surrey shelters,
increasing the risk of illness and trauma to the caged animals.

"There comes a point when you have to question the comfort of the dog -
their quality of life, " Nichols said.