The Letters Editor
Vancouver Sun
While I agree with BC SPCA CEO Craig Daniell that the animals of B.C. need the SPCA, I fear that Mr. Daniell does not understand what is at the root of most of the criticism the Society has received over recent years. An honest, principled, animal-serving SPCA is all that we seek.
The critics are tired of the same old SPCA spin about how many "adoptable" animals the SPCA has not killed, how many thousands of animals the SPCA seized this year, how many school children got to poke their fingers at a caged rabbit in the name of education, and all about how the SPCA is working with rescue groups.
When the word "adoptable" is no longer part of the kill statistics, when animals are seized and NOT sold back to the abusers or killed by the SPCA, when working with rescue means respecting others who work hard to help animals - not raiding and criminalizing them - and when I can walk into an SPCA to ask for a handout on the cruelty of chaining dogs and actually get one, instead of being told that the SPCA has none, and that I should go to the Animal Advocates Society website because there is lots of educational info there...well, maybe then I will be able to acknowledge the validity of Mr. Daniell's statements.
Hopefully one day the BC SPCA will be an honest, animal serving organization, with the money and the morals to do true animal welfare. Until then, I remain a critic.
Jennifer Dickson
President, Okanagan Animal Welfare Foundation
Vernon BC