When BC SPCA Craig Daniell sent his two top cops to raid Forgotten Felines cat shelter in Richmond (Who Let the Dogs Out? http://www.animaladvocates.com/cgi-bin/newsroom.pl/read/3718), who knows what his motive was? He did not bother to find out that his own branches gave sick cats scheduled to be killed by the SPCA to Forgotten Felines. He did not bother to find out that the Richmond SPCA had been to Forgotten Felines in the past and could never find grounds for complaint. He did not bother to find out if the "other cat group" had a history of false complaints against Forgotten Felines. Or he did know all that and for a purpose that we can only guess at, sent his cops to threaten and harass Forgotten Felines anyway.

When Sun columnist Barbara Yaffe, a long-time Forgotten Felines volunteer, went to his office the same day as the raid to tell him that Forgotten Felines was far from deserving of SPCA harassment, in fact took far better care of cats than the SPCA itself, and to ask him what the hell he was thinking of, he did not stop and think, Oh oh, the media... maybe I'd better be careful that I have not made an error. Instead he goaded Yaffe by repeating that his "source" was highly credible, that his inspectors were not in uniform and just happened to drop by (5 people at Forgotten Felines saw their uniforms), and when Yaffe told him that one of his cops, Eileen Drever, had been so bullying that Penny did not want her back (as Drever had said she would be), he told Yaffe that Drever might very well be back.

In other words, the head of the BC SPCA acted rashly, intemperately, and stubbornly and provokingly ....to an important media person. He showed (again) that his judgement is untrustworthy and unpredictable and that he is capable of single-handedly destroying the SPCA. His actions are so bizarre that the once-slavishly supportive media are now circling the SPCA like sharks.

Daniell then went on to tell relative strangers that the Order the SPCA served on Forgotten Felines had been revoked, but refused to communicate with Forgotten Felines' lawyer. This is not behaviour that deserves trust.

We believe that Craig Daniell really wants to prevent cruelty and make the BC SPCA into the best animal protection and welfare organization in Canada, but the way he is going about it is going to destroy the SPCA.

Daniell's terrible judgement gave the SPCA's union the opening that it has been waiting for to discredit the SPCA's attempts to reform, starting by getting out of its many dog disposal contracts, most of which are staffed by CUPE members.

He handed this opportunity to the career animal disposers on a platter.

Yaffe was given the CUPE allegations and repeated them, unaware that the three SPCA inspectors who she was so mad at have long union histories and are typical of SPCA union employees. Now the media, after decades of being uncritical flaks for the BC SPCA, is in a feeding frenzy of flakery for the union. In our opinion, both the SPCA and the union are rotten to the core.