Rick Sargent and his wife Millie were determined to make the SPCA stop being cold-blooded animal disposers. Millie volunteered at the Victoria SPCA and was so horrified at what she saw and what she learned that she almost single-handedly got rid of the manager and her husband and made the Victoria SPCA a place where animals were treated humanely and where animal rescuers like Greater Victoria Animal Crusaders' Carol Sonnex could work as partners.

Rick joined Millie in this fight and then went further; he joined the BC SPCA Board of Directors and then become president of the BC SPCA. It is Rick who honestly described SPCAs as "Animal Alcatrazes", and he tried very hard to get conditions for animals improved.

A few months ago Rick quit. Not one of the new shelters that CEO Craig Daniell was promising in the media had been built. The SPCA was still not submitting the audited statements that the law requires it to, so $20 million dollars a year is unaccounted for year after year. And if the new CEO's twisting and spinning in the media and his illegal seizures, and animal abusers getting abused animals back once they had paid huge sums to the SPCA was not a concern to Sargent, it should have been.

Rick attended on June 5th outside the Victoria SPCA to protest the SPCA's dog tests - the ones that were used to try to kill Cheech; the ones that are used to kill dogs out of hand, no chances; the ones that result in viciously dangerous dogs being sold to unsuspecting dog lovers all the time; the ones that are both sick and sickening.

Good for you Rick. Now if only the rest of the board had half your backbone.