© 2002 |
Editor: Judith Stone |
THE
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THE FIGHT FOR REAL
ANIMAL WELFARE IN BRITISH COLUMBIA- |
THE SURREY SPCA
SHOWS HOW TO USE THE "MORATORIUM" ON KILLING TO GO ON KILLING FOR EXACTLY THE
SAME OLD REASONS BUT WITH A NEW NAME... |
| Mar 10, 2002 Surrey News Friday , Mar 08, 2002; Dan Ferguson; A new no-kill policy at the B.C. SPCA won't mean a significant reduction in the number of animals euthanized at the Surrey pound. "At most, we're looking at a slight reduction," Surrey SPCA Supt. Hugh Nichols said Thursday. Nichols' assessment comes in the wake of Tuesday's announcement of an indefinite moratorium on destroying shelter animals except for medical reasons at all 32 SPCAs shelters in B.C. Nichols said a very similar policy has already been in place at the Surrey SPCA for the last few years, meaning virtually every animal destroyed in Surrey has been put down only for medical reasons - age, illness or vicious temperament. (our emphasis) In 2000, the most recent year statistics are available, 566 animals were euthanized at the Surrey SPCA, 14 of them due to lack of space. The local branch destroyed 173 dogs, 95 of them for "behavioural problems" that usually involve aggressive or vicious behaviour and 78 for medical reasons. During the same period, 393 cats were put down, 129 for behaviour problems, 250 for medical reasons, and 14 due to lack of space. Nichols said the new policy will probably mean more efforts to treat ill animals rather than euthanize them - depending on resources. "You can rescue any (sick) animal if you throw enough money at it," Nichols said. "The question is, do you (as an organization) want to spend $3,000 to $4,000 on one cat?" Lorie Chortyk, spokesperson for the B.C, SPCA, said the policy will mean more animals from rural shelters like Prince George will be transferred to Surrey and other Lower Mainland shelters for adoption, because those shelters will have more space. Chortyk says the society will use donated air cargo flights if necessary to transfer the overflow animals. "We're going to have find homes for 10,000 more animals," Chortyk said. "We're also expanding our foster animal program (where dogs and cats are temporarily placed with private homes while awaiting adoption) and we're increasing promotion of our adoption service." There was initial concern that some owners of ailing and sick animals would have been unable to have their pets put to sleep under the terms of the new no-kill policy announced by the B.C. SPCA this week. When society chief executive officer Doug Brimacombe announced the indefinite moratorium on destroying shelter animals except for medical reasons, he said "no euthanasia should happen without a sign-off from a veterinarian." That raised the prospect of pet owners being turned away by the SPCA because they haven't had a veterinarian approve their decision to euthanize their ailing animal. "There seemed to be some confusion whether you can put an animal down at the owner's request," Surrey SPCA Supt. Hugh Nichols said Thursday. Nicholas said the Surrey branch asked for clarification of that point and has been told that owners will not be required to see a vet, unless the local SPCA has some doubts about the owner's intentions. "It's not the animal that's in medical distress (that will be directed to a vet), it's the fellow that wants to put the dog down because it doesn't match their couch," Nichols said. If the BC SPCA is sincere about doing animal welfare at last, it is going to have a tough row to hoe getting control over the kind of employee it hired over the years to do all its killing. Read about Hugh Nichols in what Dorothy Beddows wrote in 1999. http://www.animaladvocates.com/unhappy-endings-dudley.htm . Dorothy was a Surrey SPCA volunteer and the first woman AAS met who saw clearly what the SPCA was, and chose to break ranks and to tell the truth instead of silently enabling the SPCA to go on killing as thousands of well-meaning but misguided SPCA volunteers have done for fifty years. Nichols is claiming that the Surrey SPCA, infamous for killing for money (pound contracts) for decades, has always not killed dogs for any reason but ill-health! (Read more on questionable SPCA euthanasia statistics, click here.) Nichols immediately read the BC SPCA's moratorium announcement right: that from now on all killing was to be called for "health reasons". That allows the SPCA to call aggression a "mental illness"! And that designation is no longer to be made, as in the past, by the SPCA employee in the foulest mood, or the SPCA employee who doesn't like small dogs, or matted dogs, or large dogs, or the look on a dog's face, but by SPCA trained assessors using their new "cutting edge dog assessment tool". (Read more on "dog experts" who use junk science to justify their ends, click here) March 10, 2002 Douglas Brimacombe,CEO, Surrey manager Hugh Nichols is quoted as commenting on the P.O.'s announcement of the moratorium on euthanasia except for medical reasons, saying, " virtually every animal destroyed in Surrey has been put down only for medical reasons - age, illness or vicious temperament." He is calling vicious temperament a medical reason for euthanasia. Can you tell me if the twisting of temperament into a medical condition is now BC SPCA policy? Judy Stone, No answer of course. There never is. |
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