...at least, not recently. When the SPCA sent Stephen Huddart, then Manager of Humane Education and Community Relations, to a 2001 meeting with staff at the District of North Vancouver, in an unsuccessful attempt to rescue its pound contract with the District, Huddart (rather sheepishly since I was sitting right there) said the North Vancouver SPCA was in fact no-kill and had been for several years. This was greeted with the disbelief it deserved.

In March 2003, when the SPCA was doing damage control on its second brutal P.R. disaster (the killing of six nice dogs by the Vancouver SPCA), it announced a cagey "moratorium on killing (for space)". Of course everyone and their dog thought the SPCA was announcing it was no-kill, including the media. Everyone but a few sceptics that is, who read the fine print and immediately knew that it was just another SPCA snow-job and that the SPCA from now on was going to "scientifically test" dogs before killing them or make sure that dogs and cats were "sick" and then kill them. The new catchy P.R. phrase used in the pet disposal industry was "we kill no 'adoptable' animals, but who do you think decided how many animals a month were 'unadoptable' and got to be killed? In other words, nothing but the window dressing had changed.

The P.R. disaster referred to was the SPCA being exposed on TV for killing six nice dogs in January 2003 and came on the heels of the worst P.R. in the SPCA's 100+ history, the unforgettable news in May 2001 that Vancouver SPCA CEO Douglas Hooper was making $204,000+. It's been four years and AAS is still told weekly by total strangers that they will never give the SPCA another penny because of that. No one, not even people who are not "animal lovers", can seem to forget that.

The Vancouver SPCA killed the six dogs only because they had not sold and were costing money and taking up space that could be used for more sellable "product". Brave volunteers went to the media and on TV, exposed it for this. The SPCA - on TV - lied through its teeth. It said the dogs were "aggressive". The volunteers countered that if that was so, why were they allowed to walk and groom them for months and why were they up for sale all that time?

So... little more than a month later, in March, CEO Douglas Brimacombe press-released a frantically cobbled-together Moratorium, the dog test and the new no-killing for space policy. AAS has reported many times on the dishonesty of this whole scam, especially the "science".

But the SPCA had the sense not to use the no-kill word itself, knowing that its critics would make mincemeat out of that in no time.
Real no-kill only mercifully euthanizes animals that cannot recover from injury or illness, giving the same conscientious care to all the animals in their charge as they would their own. Only the average person and dim-witted SPCA volunteers would not know that what the SPCA practices is not no-kill.