Obviously Jennifer Gore completely misses the point. Imagine publicly announcing that they (Kamloops SPCA) have now educated themselves enough to be able to recognize when an animal is so stressed out by its "shelter" situation that the most humane thing to do is kill it! To hold pound contracts and warehouse animals and finally come to this revelation but still not GET IT...shame on "shelter workers" and "rescuers" who warehouse more animals than can be humanely looked after at one time. Shame on the shufflers who move animals from one place to another as fast as they can because there are more coming. Shame on anyone who routinely "rescues" owner surrendered animals- you are not rescuing, you are enabling the cycle of breed, purchase, and dump. True rescue means taking in an animal that has no one else, meaning no known former owner, no other guardian. And guess what? There is no such thing as a "forever home". You can never be 100% sure. I've done "rescue" (yes, I've shuffled animals) for years, and I've warehoused animals for years and I'm sick of it. I've been called "wonderful" and "kind" and "an angel", but I know I'm not. The SPCA warehouses, sells, and kills animals for money. "Rescue Angels" warehouse and shuffle animals and always end up broke, but hey, everyone tells us how wonderful we are. What we don't get is how hard it is on the animals. And what we really don't get is that we're enabling the cycle to continue. What if we all at once, all us "rescue angels" and all SPCA's just said NO to people who are trying to dump their animals on us? Can you imagine? Human beings would have to take responsibility for their own problem. Oh I can hear everyone saying, "How cold of you, then they'd just dump them by the side of the road". Well guess what? They already do that. We all know that they do. And I can hear "They'd just put them to sleep". Well you know what? If I were a dog or cat I'd rather have my life ended with familiar people around me than be warehoused and shuffled amongst strangers indefinitely. So it's finally dawned on the SPCA that what they're doing is stressful to animals. But it hasn't dawned on them to stop. Just like it took ten years to dawn on me why I hate what I'm doing, what is so innately wrong with it. Judy Stone told me a long time ago that if she won the lottery she wouldn't spend a penny on building bigger or more humane shelters to warehouse more animals. No, she said she'd spend every cent on rewriteing laws, pressuring legislators for change, and on public relations to get the true message out about what is wrong and how to right it. She said that "Just as welfare entrenches poverty, shelters and shufflers entrench homeless animals." So before you write me your angry responses (and I'm expecting there will be some) PLEASE THINK ...Just take a while to think about the whole thing. Then I'm hoping you will all lobby your mayors and council for true change. It's time to break the cycle.

Jennifer Dickson

President, Okanagan Animal Welfare Foundation