Group cries foul over SPCA tactics

By Ken Henry - Abbosford Times

The operator of a Mission dog shelter says she is going to take the B.C. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to court because of their "bully tactics."

Kathe Jeffries has operated the West Coast Spay and Neuter Society from her home in northeast Mission for 15 years and said she has never complained about the SPCA.

But on Wednesday, after allegations from the SPCA that one of the dogs she adopted out was in ill health, Jeffries said she had enough.

"I have witnesses that the dog was fine [when it was adopted out]," said Jeffries, a former SPCA volunteer. "It was a wonderful little dog. Up until now I've never said anything against the SPCA. If they get sneaky I have lots to say."

SPCA officers went to inspect the shelter on Wednesday afternoon because of the complaint they received about the dog. Officers said the dog had bite marks across the majority of its body and was in bad condition.

"We did receive a complaint and we had made an arrangement with Kathe to do an inspection of the facility," said Craig Daniell, chief executive officer of the SPCA, in a phone interview on Thursday. "That's basically the sum total of what I can really say on the matter. Whether the complaint is bogus or not, [we don't know] unless we have an opportunity to check it out."

Jeffries said the dogs she looks after are given proper shots, tattoos and are spayed and neutered. She said during the day the dogs are kept outside and at night they are brought inside.

When the SPCA officers attempted to inspect the shelter on Wednesday they were shunned. Jeffries and six other people, some of them members of an animal rights coalition from Vancouver, told the officers they were not welcome inside the shelter unless they had a warrant. The SPCA did not have a warrant, so they packed up and left.

Donna Liberson of the animal rights group said the inspection was a set-up. She said the person who adopted the dog and made the complaint is friends with Eileen Drever, the SPCA's senior animal protection officer.

Liberson, a former SPCA volunteer, said the SPCA often seizes animals and then claims it doesn't have the money to properly look after them, "so they kill them."

Fellow animal rights activist Barbara Fellnermayr said Jeffries does a good job with her shelter and "there's no reason for the SPCA to seize any of her animals. Kathe looks after them.

"Why should they go to the SPCA where they'll be cooped up in a kennel?" asked Fellnermayr, former animal controller for Vancouver and Coquitlam.

Daniell was reluctant to speak about Liberson and Fellnermayr's comments.

"I'm not going to respond to that," he said. "I don't believe there are [grounds for the arguments]. I'm not going to engage in a discussion with a newspaper about Donna Liberson and certainly not engage in discussion about the complaint. That is not going to help this particular situation. We want to try to turn to a solution that's acceptable to Kathe and a solution that's acceptable to us."

Jeffries said, "I have no idea why they're doing this. They're just turning up and hoping to find something. There's nothing to find."

Liberson said the solution to the problem is to have the SPCA accountable to a provincial body.

"Right now nobody at the SPCA is accountable," she said. "They can do what they please."

Daniel said if people are not satisfied with the SPCA the court system is open to them.

"There is an accountability process that's there and we have to abide by exactly the same rules and principles as any police officer," he said.

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