Pacific Animal Foundation (PAF) in North Vancouver has done feral cat Trap/Neuter/Release (TNR) for free for over ten years for the three North Shore Municipalities of West Vancouver, the City of North Vancouver, and the District of North Vancouver. All over BC, Cat Rescue Societies are doing this pest control work humanely, often out of their own pockets. The public, if it thinks about this issue, often erroneously believes that the SPCA is humanely dealing with feral cats. It either doesn't know that the SPCA kills the cats outright, or it believes the SPCA when it says that killing them outright is true compassion and that TNR is cruel.

PAF has written many letters to the BC SPCA, urging it to change its policy of automatic death for feral cats brought to it, and to adopt a TNR assistance program for feral cat rescuers as have truly humane societies such as the San Francisco SPCA.

PAF also asked the City of North Vancouver for some financial assistance, pointing out that it was taking care of the feral cat nuisance problem for free. It was turned down. Perhaps the City of North Vancouver thinks the SPCA's version of feral cat pest control is fine and sees no reason to spend more money on a humane solution. Perhaps the City did not even ask its pest control contractor, the SPCA, if the City ought to take some money out of the SPCA's contract and give it to humane cat rescuers. Perhaps the City didn't ask the SPCA to start doing humane feral cat control.

Municipalities have been getting a free ride for decades. Many pay the SPCA to do all pest pet control. They get a cheap contract price and in return the SPCA gets a free outlet in which to sell used pets and fundraise. (In most municipalities where the SPCA holds animal control contracts, the municipality provides the facility for free or for a nominal rent.)

The hope that the BC SPCA would adopt the policies and ethics of real animal welfare is dead, as dead as the 90 cats killed by the Kamloops SPCA last month. We urge feral cat rescue societies to move on, stop looking to the SPCA for humane solutions, and start approaching municipalities for funding.