Jungle Pet, an exotic pet store in Kamloops that was well known to Kamloops SPCA, closed its doors last week when new ownership made a gruesome discovery.

From the Kamloops This Week, March 15, 2004, quoting Tara Donovan, new owner of Jungle Pet:

"The conditions of the animals were deplorabe, leading us to wonder what had happened to allow such severe neglect"..."snakes, lizards, and frogs in a fridge, three deceased rabbits in a pen at the back of the store and one kitten frozen in a freezer"..."Over the week that we operated the business, we found more than two dozen deceased animals, including snakes, lizards, and one kitten."

Kamloops SPCA Manager Jennifer Gore admits that the SPCA had known of the atrocities at Jungle Pet, yet had done nothing:

"Jennifer Gore, branch mangaer of the SPCA, said the Society had complaints from the public about the care of the animals".

The article goes on to reiterate that "The SPCA...under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, has the legal right to close businesses that fail to comply with the Act. In this case however, the SPCA didn't order the closure."

How many more bodies have to be exumed before the SPCA comes clean about its failure to "speak for those who cannot speak for themselves"? In only the past few months we have had dogs frozen to death on chains, poor dead starved horses, and now rabbits dead in their cages, dead reptiles in fridges, and a dead kitten in a freezer. And the SPCA had been made FULLY aware of EVERY single one of these counts of neglect and cruelty, for months, and even years, in advance.

The SPCA boasts of investigating over 10,000 cruelty complaints last year. Those of us in the trenches know that an "investigation" consists of taking a complainant's name and number, and in the odd case, even doing a drive-by look. Nothing ever happens. The SPCA hand picks a few ripe cases that it thinks it can grandstand for donations via the media with, and reaps the monetary benefits, while often killing the seized.

If the SPCA wants to continue on in this dishonest manner and keep making money at it, it ought to at least instruct its witless spokespeople to shut up about the neglect it has known of and allowed to happen, even after the bodies are produced.

Dishonest SPCA, its lies made weak by witless staff...all would be worthy of pity were it not for the suffering and death it permits and capitalizes from.

Story:
"Law of the Jungle Failed"
http://web.bcnewsgroup.com/portals-code/list.cgi?cat=43&paper=15&id=209088