Meet the Defendants Return to Lawsuit page
 
Lori Cumiskey
I graduated from UBC with a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1990. I worked as a Special Education Assistant with children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome with the Vancouver School Board from 1990-1994. In January 1995 I attended SFU and completed the professional development program in teaching December 1996. I have worked with the Delta School Board, teaching, from 1996 to present. From 1998-2002, I attended classes part time at UBC and completed a diploma in Special Education. I have taught grades 1, 2, 3, and 4. I was married in 2002 and we had a son in October 2002 and just had a girl January 2005. I  currently work as a teacher for the Delta School Board. I became involved with Animal Advocates after volunteering with the Vancouver pound and the Burnaby SPCA for a short time. My main concern was watching the huge influx of dogs coming into shelters needing committed, loving homes. These homes are hard to find and for every dog I found a home for, I knew many, many more would be coming in. I am being sued for being critical of things that the SPCA has done.
 

Jen Dickson

I was born in North Vancouver. I obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of British Columbia in 1992.  By the time I finished my degree, I decided that I preferred to read literature for the purpose of enjoyment rather than for the purpose of academic analysis. 

 

Given my love of animals, I decided to pursue a career in which I could work with animals and I became a full-time Animal Health Technician. I worked for a veterinarian in North Vancouver for five years.  During this time, I also did rescue work on my own time. I then moved to the Okanagan, where I worked for a veterinarian in Vernon and continued to do animal rescue work. As my rescue work became known to the people in the community,  I began receiving complaints about puppy mills.  I was told by those who called me that they had made complaints to their SPCAs in Vernon, Kamloops and Salmon Arm.  These allegations led me to begin investigating puppy mills in the North Okanagan for AAS in 1999.

 

I visited many puppymills in the course of my investigations.  I took sick dogs  from the owners of the puppymills.  I then paid all the necessary vet bills, rehabilitated the dogs both physically and mentally, and found new homes for them. I reported all mills to the SPCA. 

 

The  number of animals I was caring for continued to grow and eventually I had to start up my own home based grooming business so that I could be at home to supervise and care for them all. My income shrank and my vet bills grew, but I carried on. In an effort to educate the public about animal welfare, I formed the Okanagan Animal Welfare Foundation.  I created displays at local malls, which displays included photos and information about pet overpopulation, chained dogs, puppy mills, feral cats, etc. I was told countless times by members of the public, at these mall displays, that they had asked the SPCA for assistance about animals in distress, but that nothing had been done.

 

When the BC SPCA hired Craig Daniell, as its new General Manager of Cruelty Investigations, he announced that he wanted to crack down on puppy mills. I became cautiously optimistic that the SPCA would become more active in assisting animals in distress. With great trepidation, I gave him the particulars of six of the worst puppy mills I had investigated. I asked him to please not kill any dog that his Society received into its care as a result of my investigations. I told him that I had rehabilitated these dogs before, and that I was happy to do it again. I told him that I would rehabilitate and pay for any puppy mill dog the SPCA might otherwise kill.

 

In 2003 the Kamloops SPCA started to kill some of the puppy mill dogs it had received as a result of my investigations. Many rescue groups and individuals, including myself, had offered to take these dogs, but they were killed instead, our offers ignored. To add insult to injury, a photo of one of the puppy mill dogs that the SPCA killed was posted on the internet and used by the SPCA in one of its advertisements soliciting donations from the public.  The SPCA continued to use this photo after the puppy's death despite requests that the photo be removed 

Aside from the SPCA’s actions and inactions with respect to the puppymill dogs, I am critical of the SPCA for other things that it has done or failed to do.  One of the things, in my experience, that it has failed to do, is accept volunteer help when offered.  For example, I offered my volunteer services as a groomer to the Vernon SPCA twice, after I saw a lot of matted and filthy large and small dogs at the Vernon SPCA. I never got a reply. 

 

In the past, I have tried to work with the SPCA. I have tried to help the SPCA. I have tried to ask the SPCA for answers to my questions.  Nothing I tried met with a satisfactory response.  I found that using the AAS website as a forum for public discussion has been a meaningful way to disseminate information about animal welfare in general and to publish the actions and inactions of the SPCA. Now the SPCA is suing me for using this forum. I genuinely believe everything that I have said about the SPCA on the AAS website.  
 

Barry Faires 
I was born in Winnipeg and raised in Burnaby and educated at UBC: B.A. in English and Psychology, University of Saskatchewan, Master of Divinity: Naropa University, Boulder Colorado (North America's only Buddhist University), M.A. in Psychology (thesis pending).

I have been Assistant Clergy at Christ Lutheran Church in Regina: Dean of Residence and teacher of Religious Studies, Christian Ethics, History and Latin, at Lutheran College, Regina: Own practice in Psychotherapy in Vancouver: and currently foster First Nations boys for the Ministry of the Attorney General.

I also rescue dogs and cats and have been a Director of AAS since 2003. (Barry has not posted about the SPCA on the AAS web site. Read Barry’s rescue of Gotza)
Barry with one of the turtles he rescued from a live-food market in Chinatown
 
 
Helen Hughes
I was born in the interior of BC and was raised in North Vancouver where I began my teaching vocation.  Believing that there was a better way to educate some children, I started Windsor House Parent Participation School in my home in 1971.  Judy Stone and her daughter Sarah joined the school in 1972 and we have remained friends. Windsor House is a parent-participation, democratic, academically non-coercive school with about one hundred and seventy students and twelve staff people. The school is publicly funded by the School District #44, North Vancouver.  My interest in animal welfare springs from the same concern I have for all abuse of those who are weaker, by the more powerful.  I was pleased to be a Director of AAS for that reason. I have only posted on what I believe to be the false value of showing captive animals to children for 'educational purposes'. I  was not sued for anything that I had written, but for merely being a director of AAS.  The SPCA discontinued its lawsuit against me in July 2007.
 
 

Gail Moerkerken RRP As a graduate of the Douglas College Social Work program I began my career as a Vocational Counsellor over 20 years ago.  During the span of my career I obtained the qualifications of Registered Rehabilitation Professional (RRP), Certified Life Skills Coach, Community Management and Leadership Development, Conflict Resolution and Mediation. I worked in the not for profit field throughout the lower mainland and coupled this with a successful private practice as a Vocation Rehabilitation Consultant holding contracts with the Worker's Compensation Board, Disability Management, ICBC and Douglas College.

During the development of professional aspirations I was also pursuing goals of volunteering in the field of animal welfare and currently hold the positions of:

 President, Big Heart Rescue Society, a registered non-profit organization that is dedicated to assisting companions throughout the province with a special focus in Bella Bella, a small First Nations Reserve where diseases such as Parvo and Distemper are present and pet overpopulation is a massive concern. 

 Coordinator for Noah's Wish, an emergency disaster response organization for animals.  During the Fire Storm 2003 I volunteered in both Kamloops and Kelowna working with livestock and companion pets.  I have also provided workshops on Disaster Preparedness to the SPCA, Boarding Kennels, Farm Operators, Groomers, Rescue Organizations, Veterinarians and interested individuals.

Emergency Social Services (ESS) Pet Care Coordinator for Gabriola Island which involves community disaster planning and response. Big Heart: http://www.bigheartrescue.com/

GROWLS (wild life rescue) Gabriola Island volunteer with a major focus on seal pups and fawns.

 Despite my dedication to animal welfare, I have been sued by the SPCA.
 

Judy Stone 
I was born in Vancouver and have a daughter and three grandchildren. For fifteen years I was a roofing contractor, and after selling my company, I began animal rescue work the way so many women begin, by feral cat trapping, neutering and releasing, out of love of cats and all animals. For several years I had a cat shelter in my home with up to 60 cats being tamed and treated for diseases and rehomed.  When I realized that there were many people rescuing cats and how few were rescuing dogs, I began to do dog rescue also. I soon decided that there were people doing pure-bred dog rescue and small dog rescue and owner-surrendered rehoming, but no one was taking big, desocialized dogs and rehabilitating them, and so those are the dogs that I focused on and still do. I formed AAS in 1992 and in 2000 built the AAS website to highlight the plight of these dogs, to find foster homes and new homes for them, to provide links to other sites and to provide information about local and world-wide animal welfare issues. In the 1990s I documented the suffering of chained yard dogs in many municipalities and made addresses to councils, showing them the pictures I'd taken and urging them to adopt Humane Treatment of Dogs bylaws.  I was successful in eleven municipalities and the bylaw has been copied elsewhere in BC. But the suffering went on, barely abated.  I now use video to show the suffering more graphically. 

I am as concerned with human suffering as I am with animal suffering.  I donate to many human causes, especially for children and the homeless; I voluntarily looked after the children of a drug addicted mother whenever they needed me for five years; I took an elderly shut-in out shopping and to appointments and events for three years; and I served dinner at the Salvation Army for several years. If I weren't so involved in trying to help suffering animals, I would like to go to Afghanistan to help build schools for girls.

In the 15 years I have done animal rescue and animal welfare work I have connected with many others doing animal rescue in BC and I have been contacted by hundreds of animal lovers, expressing concern about many BC SPCA actions and policies going back five decades.

By publishing materials concerning the BC SPCA, whether critical of it or not, on the AAS website and in WatchDog posts, emails, newsletters, and letters to the SPCA and others, it has always been the goal of AAS, to make the SPCA accountable for its actions, inactions and decisions and to bring about lasting positive change to the BC SPCA and its policies, practices, and procedures, as the largest and most powerful animal welfare organization in the province. This has been stated on the AAS website for seven years. AAS has repeatedly written that it does not want to do the SPCA any financial harm; that in fact we want the SPCA to be financially strong so that it may practice real animal welfare and do real cruelty prevention according to the standards we believe animal-lovers expect and the many small alternative societies practice.   Although the SPCA held a Community Consultation process in 2001, and in its report pointed out that the contracting business of animal control/disposal (the dog-catcher) was causing the most public dissatisfaction and loss of support for the SPCA, the animal control/disposal contracting business is still being aggressively pursued by the SPCA. 

 
Emma Vandewetering
I grew up in Port Moody and worked as a part-time veterinary assistant for several years before going to UBC to begin a Bachelor of Arts program. From there I spent seven years working for a major financial institution before starting my own consulting and bookkeeping business, which I still do today. I've been married for 14 years and have an eight year old son and an eight year old Great Dane/Lab who was rescued after five years on a chain.
I have been passionate about animals my entire life, and I cannot bear to see them suffer in any way. I became involved with Animal Advocates about five years ago, after seeing a powerful newspaper ad and the story of "Judith" on their web site. Having had numerous negative experiences with the SPCA as a vet tech and in my personal life, I was excited that someone (AAS) was trying to initiate positive changes at the SPCA and I was eager to get involved and help.
I never imagined that my work with AAS, which was designed to encourage reforms at the SPCA and improvement in the welfare of the animals under the charge of the SPCA, would cause me to be sued by an organization that was created to fulfill the same mandate as the AAS - animal welfare.