I'm so sorry Carol, and for the volunteers at the Burnaby SPCA. Honestly, I think the SPCA gets overwhelmed with the job of finding appropriate homes for all these dogs. It is certainly no Science that there are not enough homes out there for the endless pits, rotties, labs and shepherds and their crosses that end up there. So, they use these totally inappropriate tests to justify the killing.

Yet, why not crack down on all these backyard breeders of big crosses? Especially the ones out in Langley..and the big question I have is, why not be progressive and institute some kind of breeding by-law? It would do the public such a service if the SPCA allowed the really good breeders to be the only ones breeding.

The good breeders DON'T breed for profit..they do it because they love animals and want to provide the public with a dog with sound mind and health. How rewarding is it to give a lovely family a dog that you know will brighten their days for a long time to come? I know from my years of fostering, how wonderful that is and any really good breeder would give a dog for these same reasons. Instead the SPCA is just killing off the dogs that come in from puppy mills and god knows where else, some of whom are probably just fine.

And as mentioned, the living conditions at the shelters are beyond what any social animal can withstand for a period of time. Of course, the animal is going to deteriorate.

After years of volunteering at the Vancouver Pound, I wrote out a will instructing where my animals should go in case something ever happened to me or my husband as I don't want any of my animals to ever, ever, ever end up at an SPCA or a pound. I can't imagine anything worse.