Craig Daniell, CEO of the BC SPCA was interviewed on the Rafe Mair program this morning (December 11th/03). During the program Mr. Daniell stated that there is a huge cat overpopulation in the Province of British Columbia. Ok . . . now what ? The SPCA is the organization in charge of animal welfare in the Province so what is their plan to (humanely) tackle this problem ? Year after year, the SPCA continues to take in owner-surrendered cats, abandoned street cats and thousands of feral kittens born in back alleys who fill the SPCA shelters to overflowing all over B.C. You’d think, if the SPCA were truly concerned about reducing the cat overpopulation, they would try to get at the "grass roots" of this problem. What are the grass roots of the problem ? Anyone taking two minutes to assess the situation could come up with some obvious conclusions . . . there are no controls on cat breeding in the Province, no feral cat assistance program and unlimited surrender of cats at all SPCA shelters, allowing anyone to easily "dump" their cat and let someone else take responsibility for it. The result, year after year ? . . . desperate pleas from the SPCA begging the public to adopt to ease the strain on shelters' bursting at the seams, rampant and continuous outbreaks of upper respiratory disease in the shelters from too many cats squished into cages and under stress, and leaving thousands of feral kittens, each year, in back alleys to grow up unspayed/unneutered to continue the population explosion. The cycle will NEVER be broken unless the SPCA steps up to the plate and implements controls on breeding, a feral cat assistance program, penalties for animal abandonment and moves to restrict unlimited surrender. There is an old saying that comes to mind . . . . "Lead, follow or get out of the way" (of the animal groups trying to implement these changes!)