Vancouver Courier: Animal activist wrong about SPCA January 14, 2004

To the editor:

I would appreciate the opportunity to clarify a serious error in a quote attributed to Judy Stone in your story on backyard dogs ("Activists furious as dogs left out to freeze," Jan. 7).

Ms. Stone is quoted as saying that she has been "unsuccessful in lobbying the BC SPCA to amend its governing act that would outlaw yard dogs." The BC SPCA has no power or authority whatsoever to create municipal, provincial or federal laws concerning animals and cannot-as much as we would love to-"outlaw" yard dogs. Rather, we are one of the primary advocacy groups that strenuously lobbies governments to change and improve laws protecting animals, including those impacting the plight of dogs kept in yards without proper care and socialization. We adamantly oppose the keeping of animals alone in yards where their social and psychological needs cannot be met and this issue has been, and continues to be, an absolute priority in the ongoing lobbying, humane education and cruelty enforcement activities of the SPCA.

As Ms. Stone is aware, the SPCA cannot remove animals at will-we must first present enough evidence to a judge to obtain a search warrant and have an accompanying veterinarian determine that an animal is in distress before we have the power to remove that animal from its guardian. In the tragic case of the Dalmatian who died last week, the SPCA had visited the home on two other occasions (once in June 2001 and a second time earlier in 2003) on minor complaints that proved to be unfounded when we investigated. The story implies that the previous calls about the Dalmatian were made recently or that they were related to the circumstances of dog's death, which is not the case. The SPCA responds to every cruelty complaint we receive and in cases where animals are in distress, we move quickly to remove them from danger. Last year, the SPCA seized more than 1,300 animals from unsafe situations.

Lorie Chortyk.
BC SPCA