I couldn't agree more Lori. If the SPCA were doing all the lobbying of government for humane bylaws and control of breeding legislation, if the SPCA were trapping, altering, and managing feral cat colonies, if the SPCA were spaying and neutering left right and center, if the SPCA were doing something to stop dogfighting on the reserves, if the SPCA were lobbying zoos and aquariums out of existence...well then I'd be MORE than happy to give the SPCA all the money I could. And when you figure that I spend about fifteen thousand dollars a year on vet bills alone (my own hard earned money, not donations), the SPCA would stand to receive quite a lot of financial support from me, if only I could be sure it was used for real animal welfare. I would gladly trade fifteen thousand dollars a year to a true animal welfare organization for the chance to have a normal life again.

Unfortunately, the BCSPCA has not yet proved itself to be about true animal welfare. Five years of diligent hammering have resulted in a few small victories (the SPCA no longer allows its own staff to breed animals, it is doing more pre-sales spay and neuter, it is practising spotty limited surrender, and for the first time ever it has spoken out against rodeos), but then there were those nasty blips where it killed a bunch of dogs in Surrey for having kennel cough, and cats in Kamloops for being exposed to distemper, even though the huge majority of them weren't even clinically ill, not to mention the puppy mill dogs it killed when many people, myself included, offered to save them. Oh yes, and then the Cheech incident, and the raid on Forgotten Felines, and the cruel death of the Christmas terrier that the Vancouver Sun's Barbara Yaffe made public knowledge, and the mass killing of the Beaverdell dogs, and the betrayal of the Topaz Creek dogs, and all the documented cases of animals it has made sick, both physically and mentally in its "shelters"...

Obviously the BCSPCA has a long way to go. It can sue me, it can attempt to have me sign a gag order. Whatever, who cares. I'm tired, but I won't stop fighting to make it really speak for animals. When it does, everyone will win. Me, it, the animals. The SPCA will get my money, the animals will get their own best interests looked after by a strong voice that is full of integrity, and I will get my life back. Good deal for everyone!

The only ones who might lose would be the lawyers. Oh well.