I'm involved with the Maple Ridge SPCA through my volunteering with Katie's Place. I know about the cats but I don't know much about the dogs. However, the staff there now care as much about the dogs as the cats and champion each case. But the Maple Ridge shelter has changed completely. There are portables on site, thanks to the City and its Animal Welfare Committee. I don't think the SPCA itself has contributed anything to speak of to the facility, I'm not sure what they chipped in.

Comparing that shelter in '99 with the shelter now is like night and day. In '99, the volunteers were fighting the staff to save lives, literally fighting them to save lives. Now, the staff pleads with volunteers to help special case animals who are at the end of their rope. In '99 the animals all lived in cages without bedding if Brian Nelson, their manager of Field Operations at the time, had anything to say about it. Bedding made too much laundry for the staff, he said. Now the cats all have bedding and toys. They also get time outside of their cage regularly. This all keeps them adoptable, rather than cage crazy or depressed. Now, there are two small communal rooms. The portables could have been laid out better but the staff member who spearheaded the layout of the portables is gone. All too little too late. Anyway, long term cats have the comparative freedom of these communal rooms. Up to '99 the SPCA would kill cats with URI or ringworm. The current staff will treat it and foster them out if possible until they've recovered. But no adoptable cat is allowed by this young staff to be classified as unadoptable (therefore kill-able) just because it's sick. They're not unreasonable though. They have euthanized a very small number of animals for being dangerous or too sick to cure. I trust these people's judgment on this because I know how much they care. I know they treat the dogs with equal consideration. In '99 one staff member in particular didn't care if she went off shift at the end of the day leaving some animals without food or water or a clean litter pan. In her words, "It won't hurt them [to go without water overnight]" I cannot imagine this current staff leaving animals for any length of time without food, water or a clean litter pan. When they see a need, they fix it.

We volunteers would go to supervisors and management with these complaints in '99. They shrugged and said the staff are unionized, we can't do anything. I suspect they'd say the same today if we had cause to complain again. I know there are still people on staff who do not seem to hold animals' lives particularly dear. I've seen staff members bring different philosophies to their work and each seems guided by his or her own personal ethics. I haven't seen any uniformity imposed from above as to standards. There are those for whom it's just a living, and then there are staff such as the ones I know in Maple Ridge who go above and beyond to make sure each animal is safe and well. So each shelter seems to reflect the philosophy of the individuals who happen to work there. Some shelters are better than others. In other SPCA shelters I suspect the animals are still put down for simply getting sick, probably without much effort made to find alternatives. We animal lovers in Maple Ridge fear the day we lose the current staff members. We're afraid things would never again be so good.