Animal Advocates Watchdog

North Shore News: The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals did not prevent

Prevention was in order (By Joan Klucha, Special To North Shore News -- February 13, 2011)

Like most people, I wonder what led to that fateful day last April when 100 sled dogs were killed in Whistler.

I have tried to imagine a host of scenarios but nothing makes sense to me. Something went very wrong, but we may never know what, why or how that something was. What we do know is that a number of people and organizations let those dogs down, be it because of greed, ignorance, fear or ego.

Most surprising to me are the alleged actions of the B.C. SPCA, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. A society that claims to pride itself on preventing, I will use that word again -- preventing -- cruelty to animals.

According to the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, one definition of prevention is to "stop from happening or doing something." It's about acting or responding beforehand; forethought.

Some news reports suggest the employee that killed the dogs contacted the SPCA near the time the cull took place, looking for help.

AAS comment: The reason that news reports suggest that is because Eileen Drever, the SPCA's Senior Animal Protection Officer (who in this case, did not protect dogs that she knew had been in distress many times before, even, after seeing emaciation in 2006, giving Fawcett "Orders" to be complied with), told the media that Fawcett had contacted her, that he had told her the dogs were in poor condition and seldom off their chains, and he had asked her for SPCA help to rehome them. Her first duty was to go and investigate dogs whose poor conditions were known to her personally and many complaints (that we know of) that were known to the SPCA.] Her second duty was to attempt to assist in their rehoming, since it's incontrovertibly known in the animal protection business that out-of-work sled dogs are killed all the time. The SPCA had to have known that; what it didn't know was that it would be a bloodbath that would hit the headlines.

The animal organization denies that they had any contact with him until a month afterward. On its website, the SPCA does say it was approached by the tour operator in July for help placing more dogs and that they turned him away.

AAS comment: The SPCA's spin was neatly exposed in an article in the National Post by Brian Hutchinson. Hutchinson listens to SPCA CEO Craig Daniell deny and prevaricate and then nails him:

"But according to The Vancouver Sun, he did call the B.C. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals at some point, to describe the condition of his animals. A B.C. SPCA animal protection officer admitted that she had spoken with him. "What happened last spring is [Mr. Fawcett] contacted me and complained about some of the conditions of the dogs and I was supposed to go up there and check," senior animal protection officer Eileen Drever told the Sun.

"Ms. Drever did not travel to Whistler. This might seem like a missed opportunity for someone ostensibly in the business of protecting animals. "[Mr. Fawcett] didn't advise me he was going to kill any dogs," she explained to the Sun. "He was going to find homes."

AAS comment: Ms Drever seems to hope to deflect attention from the fact that she didn't go to Whistler to inspect, even though she personally knew the long history of severe neglect, and that she refused to rehome even one dog.

"The Sun story angered Ms. Drever's boss, B.C. SPCA executive director Craig Daniell. He fired off his own news release Wednesday. "It is deeply distressing to our organization that anyone would imply we had knowledge of, or could have prevented, the devastating killings carried out by Outdoor Adventures Whistler," it read.

"Reached at his office on Thursday, Mr. Daniell could not point to any inaccuracies in the Sun article. He said that Ms. Drever was not misquoted. "We know that she made those quotes," he said. So in other words, Ms. Drever really was "supposed to go up there and check" on the Whistler sled dogs and their miserable conditions? "I think she indicated in the article that she would go up in the summer," said Mr. Daniell. In fact, she had not indicated that at all. Well, her boss added, "in an ideal world she would have gone up." http://www.animaladvocates.com/cgi-bin/queen.pl?md=read;id=13902

In the Vancouver Sun, SPCA senior animal protection officer Eileen Drever said she spoke with an animal behaviourist who is also a vet, "and she spoke with an expert in the [United] States who said [the sled dogs] weren't adoptable."

AAS comment:No long-distance U.S. expert was necessary (has this person been named?) since:

(a) the world's foremost expert, Dr Stanley Coren, lives in Vancouver;

(b) the SPCA itself boasted that in 2008 it had rehomed 80+ seized sled dogs (these dogs were so terribly unsocialized that the SPCA could hardly catch some of them and if the SPCA were covered by FOI, as it should be, those "adoption" forms are some of thousands of records we would demand; in fact we would demand the records of all "adopted" seized animals); and

(c) there are dog rescue groups right here in BC which the SPCA knows (since it refused) have rehomed many sled dogs, again, far less socialized than the Howling dogs' dogs.

Are we to believe that if he had contacted them in March, rather than April (or May or July) their response would have been any different?

As a trainer of almost two decades, I simply shake my head in shame because I believe that every dog should be given a chance at rehabilitation. I know that with the right training, effort, patience, understanding and guidance, a dog can be rehabilitated, trained and socialized. They may not all turn out to be Lassie but they should be given a chance at having a decent life somehow, somewhere.

I feel shame because I know there are several private rescue groups that would have bent over backwards to not only find foster homes for many -- if not all -- of these dogs, but they would have found the energy, effort and funds to rehabilitate and socialize many of the dogs, even if it required money from their own paycheques and itty bitty fundraising events like bottle drives and photos with Santa. These rescue groups operate on budgets that are not even remotely close to the dollar amounts donated to the B.C. SPCA every single year.

AAS comment: SPCA revenues for 2009, the latest year available, were $27,837,334

I may not be making any new friends with this next comment, but I have a hard time laying blame on the individual involved in the culling of the dogs for not contacting these private rescues. He did contact the B.C. SPCA (even if the timing remains in question). To most people, they are the place to turn to when animals are in distress or possible distress. What does one do when the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals is telling you that the dogs are unadoptable? Perhaps he didn't realize there were other options.

If staff at the B.C. SPCA didn't want to get involved, they should have pointed him toward these private rescue groups.

Having said all that, if we are going to move forward and prevent something like this from ever happening again, we have to stop living in the past and let go of the anger and disgust. Rescue groups have to start working together as a community and help each other instead of creating boundaries and battles with each other like a bunch of dogs peeing on their territory!

AAS comment: AAS is colleagues with dozens of other groups, helping financially where it can.

I don't have any answers to the questions in my own head, let alone anyone else's over this matter. All I know is that there is a need for change in how animals are cared for and protected, be it for business or for our own personal enjoyment.

joan@k9kinship.com

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