Animal Advocates Watchdog

The SPCA accuses AAS of being responsible for its loss of pound contracts

In some of the many expensive court proceedings the SPCA has used in its suit to silence AAS it has accused us of causing it pecuniary damage by causing it to lose animal control contracts.

The SPCA has been replaced as the animal controller/disposer in many municipalities in recent years, and in every case, it is the SPCA's own actions that caused the loss. Simply telling municipal councils verifiable information about the SPCA is called freedom of speech. The various municipalities confirmed the information they were given from many sources and made their recommendations to Mayors and councils to contract with another firm or to operate their own municipal animal control and pound.

AAS had nothing to do with creating the SPCA's actions that caused it to lose contracts, and in most cases, had nothing to do with relaying this information to the municipalities either.

In 2000, we were active in trying to convince the District of North Vancouver and the City of Coquitlam to run their own municipal pounds. But so were many others. Both municipalities were flooded with letters from SPCA volunteers and private citizens recounting their experiences at the SPCA. Some of these accounts shocked the municipalities to their core. Councillor Mae Reid in Coquitlam has never forgotten the things she was told - not by AAS, but by citizens.

And then there was the discovery by Animal Rights Coalition founder, Donna Liberson, that there had been long-standing discrepancies in the billing by the SPCA for body disposal costs. AAS had nothing to do with uncovering that.

AAS had nothing to do with the loss in Delta. The loss of that contract was triggered by the Cheech incident. In fact, AAS sincerely offered to CEO Craig Daniell personally to foster and rehabilitate Cheech and was turned down. When this last attempt by staff and volunteers to prevent the SPCA from killing Cheech failed, Cheech was stolen from the Delta SPCA while CTV filmed it. Then Delta Mayor and Council were flooded with letters and phone calls from angry private citizens and more revelations of financial improprieties. That is why Delta stopped contracting with the SPCA, not anything AAS did.

If Mr Daniell had accepted our offer, it is unlikely that the SPCA would have lost the Delta contract and it might even have been the beginning of a relationship beneficial to dogs and the SPCA where AAS would help the SPCA with needy dogs - as we have offered to so many times and continue to do so to this day.

In Abbotsford, Langley, Vernon, Kitimat, Victoria, etc, AAS has usually learned of the loss of contacts after the fact.

In Richmond, we declined requests to write the Mayor and Council so that the SPCA could not use that against us in court. The SPCA lost the contract in Richmond all on its own.

The SPCA's own Community Consultation Report, in 2001, recommended that the SPCA get out of the animal control contracting business because of the terrible harm that being the "dog-catcher" had done to the SPCA's reputation for so many decades. Under the previous CEO, the SPCA started to move in this direction. Under the current CEO, that was reversed and animal control contracts aggressively pursued, as in Richmond.

Animal control exists to protect humans from animals.

The SPCA's mandate is to protect animals from humans.

The two are ultimately ethically incompatible no matter how well-meaning the animal control agency is. Too many dogs mean that they have to be sold quickly without home checks, often to people who are completely wrong for the dog. The animal control agency is required by law to kill dogs that it decides are dangerous, and if it takes unwanted pets from the public, it will either have to stop accepting cast-off pets or it will have to kill unsold animals when it is full.

The root of the SPCA's continuing loss of contracts and loss of donations to competing animal welfare groups, is the SPCA's own conflicting policies, just as AAS said ten years ago.

Messages In This Thread

City of Richmond Awards Shelter Contract to RAPS! *LINK*
Richmond Review - Dec 14 2006 - Every dog has its day
Chortyk said the SPCA can provide services others can’t, particularly around cruelty investigations
Richmond Review - Dec 16 2006 - Price, lack of animal control services sinks SPCA
Richmond News Dec 15 2006 - SPCA poised to lose contract
Richmond Review Sep 9 2006 - Animal group seeks to claw shelter from SPCA
Working in Harmony with Big Heart Rescue *LINK*
Could this be one reason why the SPCA lost the Richmond contract? Frozen monkeys and other neglected complaints *LINK*
Letter of thanks to Mayor Brodie and Councillors
The SPCA accuses AAS of being responsible for its loss of pound contracts

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