It seems that not only do the SPCA take in many cats from every situation imaginable and unimaginal, they even do it by raiding peoples homes where the cats are loved.

Take for instance the woman in Campbell River, Isabelle Eliason, who had 60 cats living in her home. A veterinarian first saw the situation because he was there to attend to one of the cat's ears and was apparently shocked at what he saw.

He had told her that she better do something about this or he would make a formal complaint to the SPCA(This is all documented in the Campbell River North Islander paper, November 29th, 2003). As was probably expected she ignored his threat and the SPCA raided her home and collected most of the cats, some apparently had to be euthanized because the SPCA and the vet deemed them beyond hope of saving. All in all she was convicted and sentenced to one years probabtion and limited to just keeping 6 of the 60.

The prosecuting judge also decided to order that Mrs. Eliason can only have 6 cats at one time. The SPCA took the rest. They euthanized 22 cats the next day(this all happened back in 2001). 6 kittens were adopted out(which made some money for the SPCA) and 18 adult cats are still at the SPCA jail but can't be adopted out because Mrs. Eliason is trying to get them back by way of the Supreme court(which I doubt she will), now that the SPCA jail has them.

Mrs. Eliason also claims(and I believe her) that the 18 cats that the SPCA still holds hadn't been properly cared for since they've been there, back in 2001. She says that they are kept in cages, under too high a wattage of light and are matted. The cats are in distress and kindness doesn't seem to be the order of the day at the SPCA.

So here is a lady her cared and loved her cats because that's just the way she is and is being condemned for it. She may have extended her resources in trying to care for them, but she says she would never harm them in any way. In comes the powerful and - we'll take the credit in saving these poor beasts - the SPCA, but what do they do, they have most of them eutahnized and then make some money by adopting out the rest(and don't be surprised that they'll get the 18). No love came into it. The SPCA sold what they could and killed the rest.

Granted it seems that 60 cats was probably too many for them to handle. Placing a restiction on how many one can keep will only restrict the ones who care for these poor animals, like Mrs. Eliason, she just couldn't stop, that's how much she cared, which is more than I can say for the SPCA.

We need rules all right, and the governments of the province and the municipalities had better start looking at changing the rules of method by the unscrutinized SPCA. Only then will the animals have a chance for life.

Sincerely,

Tim Fisher
Port Coquitlam, B.C.