Dear Mayor Dianne Watts and Council,
I would like to comment on how little the Surrey SPCA appreciates its volunteers as this is volunteer appreciation week.
I volunteered there for over 2 years, two days a week and thought this would be something I would do for many years until an incident happened in the middle of October. Many euthanizations had happened up to this point, which of course was always upsetting, but things came to a head when a beautiful Dogo Argentino named Titan was euthanized even though volunteers and staff tried everything we knew to save this lovely dog. We even offered to pay for its transportation to a Dogo Rescue in the States as the SPCA said they couldn't afford to do this. Other avenues were also offered to staff because we felt so strongly that this dog was worth saving. We thought mistakenly that volunteers' experience with this dog would count for something because we had walked and spent lots of time with it during the period it was there. A newly hired animal behaviourist sentenced this beautiful animal to death without so much as seeing or spending time with him. Two dedicated volunteers were fired and ten more volunteers resigned over this incident. We all wrote letters explaining our reasons and as far as I know the Surrey SPCA didn't even bother to answer the letters.
We actually know the truth about how much value the Surrey SPCA places on its volunteers. Words are easy to use but actions speak much louder than words.
Hazel Smith
Surrey BC