What times are these when animal welfare suddenly becomes a CUPE crusade?

Animal control has provided SPCA union employs with fat paycheques for too long and these employees - who were hired by CUPE, not the BC SPCA - took their fat paycheques for years without ever saying a word about the BC SPCA's longstanding shortcomings with regards to animal welfare.

When Mr Daniell was made CEO in the summer of this year, all kinds of programs that directly affect animal welfare were pruned down or postponed, such as veterinary care for sick animals, in order to work towards a balanced budget sometime within this century. Mr Daniell also axed many management positions. CUPE didn't say a word. The union employees were still getting their fat paycheques, so why care what else is going on?

CUPE showed no public interest in the ups and downs surrounding the restructuring of the BC SPCA, until the day the restructuring affected it. The day the BC SPCA made the wise decision to get out of the bylaw enforcement aspect of animal control (we wish it would get out of the disposal part as well), and decided to rid itself of the excess expenditure incurred by highly paid union animal control officers by firing some of said employees...well, suddenly now criticism of the BC SPCA is on CUPE's agenda. Funny what money will drive some folks to.

I believe that SPCA staff deserve to be paid more than just minimum wage if they are doing a good job. I also believe that SPCA employees in Vancouver should be paid the same wage as SPCA employees in Prince George, or Nanaimo, or anywhere else in the province.

I believe that firing union employees is not about union bashing, it is about getting the BC SPCA financially sound again.

Do I believe that a genuine concern for the well-being of animals in the SPCA's care, and a true desire for SPCA accountability to donors and members, is the real reason that CUPE is attacking the BC SPCA? Not for one second. If it were, the union would have spoken out LONG BEFORE the paycheques disappeared.

Jennifer Dickson
Okanagan Animal Welfare Foundation

CUPE employees have it good compared to the animals they kept for decades in brutal conditions....