SPCA to sell "rescued" horses in sealed bids at auction. That is the Directors and CEO of the BC SPCA's idea of animal welfare

Posted By: Carol Sonnex
Date: Thursday, 13 May 2004, at 5:57 a.m.

From the BC SPCA website:

May 11, 2004. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE. The BC SPCA is seeking homes for nine horses seized in two recent animal cruelty investigations in the Lower Mainland. Eight of the horses were seized from a Port Coquitlam property. The ninth horse was seized in Langley after the owner refused to provide medical care for a massive, untreated tumour on one of its ears. The SPCA removed the horse and arranged for immediate surgery for her.

The horses are available for viewing at the Fraser Valley Auction and the SPCA will be accepting sealed bids. More information on the horses and the bid process is available by calling SPCA Senior Animal Protection Officer Eileen Drever at 604.709.4670.

SPCA investigations into both cruelty cases are on-going.

My experience with the Fraser Valley Horse Auction makes me aware many of the people bidding on the horses are dealers who buy the horses for meat. The SPCA are dealing in a sealed bid process which is not at all open and transparent. The buyers will not be known to the public.

The sad reality of this situation is that we the general public will never know the true fate of these horses. Will they be rehomed? Or will they simply be sold to the top bidder?

A society like the BC SPCA should care how the public view the disposition of the animals they seize, but apparently it does not.