Here is Tasha's story as told by Bev Davis from Vancouver Island:

"The facts, as I have been told are these:

Tasha was with a friend of the owner for a couple of days. The neighbours complained about too many dogs. They had nowhere to take her so the friend took her to the shelter (AAS comment: Parksville SPCA, hardly a "shelter" as you will see as you read on) at 4:00 p.m.

That friend used her name to start to fill out the application for surrender. She told them the dog was no good with cats. She mentioned Tasha had killed a cat 5 years ago. (No such incidents since.) Before the application was completed, the friend was informed that Tasha is unadoptable and would be destroyed the next morning. The friend refused to sign the form & gave them the owner's phone number.

The shelter did phone the owner who was very upset and begged them not to kill Tasha. Two other concerned people called the shelter. It was confirmed that Tasha would be destroyed. The owner was then told if she picked her dog up by 9 a.m. she could have Tasha back. This was 4:30 p.m.

The decision to put Tasha down was made within 30 minutes of her arrival. There was no assessment, no discussion, no reprieve and yet they were willing to release Tasha (who they must have considered dangerous) back into the community.

Tasha spent the night at the shelter and was released the next morning to the owner.

The fact is that the shelter had NO signature on any form which surrendered the dog to them.

If they had killed Tasha the next morning, would they not have been killing a dog to which they had no legal right? They knew the owner; Tasha is tattooed and registered with a local vet. This was not a stray dog that had come into their shelter with no identification.

Tasha is in a foster home for the present but she will need a new home soon. She is wonderful with children, walks well on leash and is a very gentle dog. Any ideas for Tasha would be greatly appreciated. "

Comment: there is so much wrong with this scenario that I hardly know where to begin! First of all, the SPCA cannot kill a dog without having it turned over legally to them by the owner, or by getting a custody order through the courts, which was obviously not needed in this case. Second, the SPCA has been boasting to the media about their CAMP assessment tool since its inception, and despite the fact that the Manager of Parksville SPCA, Christa Chadwick, is a CAMP instructor and assessor, she didn't even bother to use it for Tasha. AAS has been a huge critic of CAMP since day one, and has always felt that it gave the SPCA a scientific reason to justify killing dogs at their will. But the Parksville SPCA has just proven that the BCSPCA doesn't need CAMP or science to kill, they just make things up as they go along. If someone is having a bad day, look out! And lastly, since when does a dog get killed simply for not liking cats? Lots of dogs don't like cats or other small animals, but it doesn't mean we go around killing them all. Check out the Petfinder website and you will see that many dog descriptions say "no cats" or "no kids".
I think a few heads need to roll at the Parksville SPCA, starting with management.