Three months ago, the Port Alberni SPCA sold a sick cat. It told the purchaser that the cat was 14 weeks old when it was 6 months old. It told the purchaser that it was a male when it was a female. And it sold the cat with upper respiratory syndrome - snotty nose, mucky eyes, and having a hard time breathing. This is par for the course at all SPCA branches; they are full of diseases that can be easily controlled by proper cleaning methods and isolation.

The purchaser took the cat to her vet who phoned Port Alberni SPCA manager Irene Towell and (as described to us) "ripped a strip off her". Towell took the cat back and kept it until it was better. This is the first time that we have heard of the SPCA doing this, though it may have before, and is undoubtedly because the vet was watching. The usual response to a purchaser complaining that their recently purchased pet is sick, is "If you bring it back, we'll kill it."

Last year puppies died of parvo at the Port Alberni SPCA. SPCAs still have parvo and distemper and kennel cough outbreaks, but the Port Alberni SPCA is renown for disease.