Animals are the victims of SPCA feuding
Barbara Yaffe
Vancouver Sun
Thursday, January 15, 2004
The aim of any SPCA surely is to protect society's animals. But in the Lower Mainland a situation has developed whereby bad blood between the organization and community groups is working to the detriment of the animals.
As a longstanding donor to the SPCA, I've been surprised in recent months to learn of the mounting enmity between former SPCA volunteers and animal welfare groups, and the society itself.
It's too bad U.S. political strategist James Carville isn't around to tell both sides: "It's about the dogs and cats, stupid."
Here's an example of how the poisoned relations have worked against animals. It involves an SPCA investigation I've been monitoring in Chilliwack. Never mind the legal aspects, let's focus on what's happening to the animals.
Cats were seized by the SPCA from an owner unable to care for her charges in April and again in November. At present, 52 of these animals are in SPCA custody.
An animal welfare activist, through lawyer George Wool, offered to step in and help place the animals because of a concern they might wind up being euthanized.
Mr. Wool reports he put the plan to SPCA investigator Eileen Drever on Monday. Ms. Drever noted that not many people were offering to adopt these cats -- some are feral -- and said the plan sounded fine.
On Tuesday, she phoned back to say SPCA CEO Craig Daniell vetoed the plan because the organization does not wish to work with the particular animal welfare activist who made the offer. Ms. Drever mentioned that the activist, Donna Liberson, had submitted an article to this newspaper critical of the SPCA.
Explained SPCA rep Lorie Chortyk: "She's one of the people we don't deal with because of past actions. She's a dangerous person to deal with. She's someone we don't trust."
Ms. Liberson, who at this point had made extensive fund-raising and other arrangements to place the cats in foster homes, was dumbfounded.
She acknowledges she generally opposes SPCA policies and is critical of its failure to spay and neuter any animals left behind following cruelty investigations.
She says the SPCA also doesn't alter all its own charges, which leads to further pet overpopulation and inevitably to killing.
Ms. Liberson, a former SPCA volunteer, says she was behind a North Vancouver decision to cancel its animal control contract with the SPCA following a forensic audit of SPCA invoices for services rendered.
All that said, she did have a detailed plan to spay and neuter, then place the Chilliwack cats, in coordination with a respected North Vancouver group called Pets in Need, headed by Joyce McLeod.
Mr. Daniell said the article Ms. Liberson submitted to The Sun had nothing to do with his decision, that he was more concerned she had an ulterior motive: "She doesn't like the society."
He further stated that anyone is free to approach the SPCA for "foster program pre-approval" if they wish to foster any of the Chilliwack cats.
Anyone, that is, that the society feels it can trust.
Ms. Liberson says, under her plan, none of the cats would ever be euthanized. The SPCA cannot offer the same guarantee, though it says its intention is to find the cats homes. However if any are deemed by a vet at any point to be "in critical distress" they will be euthanized.
That's frightening, because if I were a feral cat in a crowded SPCA shelter I might be diagnosed by a vet as being in such critical distress.
Let's watch what happens to these cats.
If animals could speak, they'd remind the SPCA it has a huge deficit, resources are scarce and too many animals are killed each year. It should take any help it can get from any quarter.
This situation should be particularly alarming for the community because, for whatever reason, a disturbing number of groups and individuals appear to be at odds these days with the SPCA.
It's the animals that wind up suffering.