I have been following this issue of the mayor and council seeming to change their minds about the SPCA. At one point they said they wanted to run their own animal contol like Delta and Langley and other places. The SPCA managed to change their minds, but it is incidents like the one here that the SPCA has to fix or the SPCA will be history in Surrey too.

Surrey Now
February 2005
Shelter takes prevention out of SPCA acronym

The Editor,

I was taking my pit bull for a walk around my neighbourhood when a stray pit bull approached us. I couldn't get him to go away, so I let him follow us home with the intention of having the SPCA pick him up. I didn't want to read about another pit bull incident in the newspaper. When I called the SPCA, they were closing in five minutes and unwilling to pick up the dog, until it was an emergency, such as biting a person or animal. While I was on the phone, the dog climbed over our fence and started charging at our dog. We had to lock our dogs in the back of our truck to keep the dogs from fighting. I told her this and she still refused to get the dog. Where is the prevention in SPCA? She suggested we lock our dogs in the house and let the stray run around until they open in the morning.

I told her that this is an emergency and want to prevent a possible blood bath, and she replied, "The dog hasn't bitten anyone yet, therefore it's not an emergency and we are closing in five minutes. We can come and get him tomorrow during business hours."

What part of prevention against the cruelty to animals is this? If the pit bull bit someone, the SPCA would put him down and there would be another writeup in the paper about a "Vicious pit bull attack." Do they expect animals to stray only during office hours? The dog is running around our neighbourhood tonight and could fight with another dog or bite someone. We were trying to keep from adding to the bad reputation of pit bulls, but had no co-operation from the SPCA.

Dave Reeves and Kathrin Denter
Surrey