Who was the SPCA inspector who turned his back on dying animals and walked away? It was Bob Gordon, the same man who blasted a sea lion to death in Expo year. http://www.animaladvocates.com/spca-trigger-happy.htm
Gordon turned his back and walked away from over one hundred animals in distress, many in critical distress (near death). The SPCA doesn't even need a warrant to seize animals in critical distress from anywhere. It does not need a warrant to inspect animals where they are kept for sale or hire.
Why bring this history up now? Because although the SPCA is now making it its business to seize animals whereas in the past it made it its business to never prevent cruelty if it could possibly avoid it (to that end it suppressed and obscured evidence), it is still treating animals as beings with a purpose for the SPCA, not for the animals themselves. The purpose now appears to be revenue generation. It cannot be called animal welfare when the SPCA kills healthy animal it has seized. In at least one case it seized healthy, happy dogs that were not in even simple distress, much less critical distress, and is now claiming over $95,000 in seizure costs: that is after allowing some of the healthy dogs it seized to contract parvo and die while in its "care".
A case in point, one of many: The death by hanging of "Lady" (Link below). This case was swept under the rug, enabled by questionable handling of the autopsy and the length of time that passed before the SPCA was told of the incident (immediately) and any interest being taken by the SPCA (weeks). AAS has a file of cases of the SPCA stalling, obfuscating, denying, and ignoring evidence until the complainant gives up.
The SPCA seizes animals and then kills the ones that it deems "unadoptable" (its p.r. term for animals that are unsellable or slow to sell or expensive to rehabilitate). These deaths are mere collateral damage to the SPCA. The animals' purpose is first to be heroically seized, secondly, to cost as little as possible to hold, and thirdly, to be as sellable as possible. The case of the seizure and killing of almost 40 dogs from the hamlet of Beaverdell by the Kelowna SPCA is just one of many instances of the SPCA considering the dogs it "rescued" as drains on its bottom line, cheaper to kill than to save (link in next post)
Kathy Woodward was in charge of the Kelowna SPCA when it milked the seizure of the Beaverdell dogs for all it was worth in the media and then oversaw the killing once there was nothing more to be gained by keeping them alive. Woodward is now also in charge of the Quesnel SPCA which recently seized many dogs. Will Woodward repeat her "disappearing dogs trick" in Quesnel, or did AAS's powerful exposure of the death of the Beaverdell dogs slow her and her boss, CEO Craig Daniell, down? Her boss has rewarded her skills by promoting her, just one of many additions to his tough-cops team.
Deals are sometimes cut to return seized animals for a price, as in the case last year of the seizures from Do-Little Petting Zoo (photos at http://animaladvocates.com/do-little.htm and story at http://www.animaladvocates.com/cgi-bin/newsroom.pl/read/3569 , and from a Chilliwack breeder (full story at SPCA double speak: justifying returning the Chilliwack Puppy Mill dogs http://www.animaladvocates.com/cgi-bin/newsroom.pl/read/3097
By the way....Mr Gordon was promoted not long ago.