Ten days ago Dr Jamie Lawson, the BC SPCA's long-time Manager of Animal Health, gave PAF permission to take a cat from Vancouver Drydocks to the SPCA's Vancouver Clinic for sterilizing, vaccines and tattoo. PAF was willing to pay any other expenses should they be necessary. If this is evidence of a new BC SPCA policy, then the SPCA deserves unconditional praise.

But it may only be hush money to put a lid on a very credible cat rescue society that has started to be listened to by one of the SPCA's animal control clients, the City of North Vancouver. Feral cat rescue assistance in the SPCA's new Strategic Plan for 2005-2008 is rather vague, talking about exploring options such as working with other groups and municipalities, so perhaps one day the SPCA's official feral cat policy will no longer to just put them down as they come in. Only time will tell.

A chain of events raises the question as to whether this is a new humane policy or a way of placating the City of North Vancouver. PAF has informed the City more than once of the work it does that the City may think the SPCA is doing. In March this year, PAF told the City how a resident realized that two abandoned tame rabbits were in her neighbourhood and that she had phoned PAF for help because she did not trust that the SPCA would not kill the rabbits if she brought them to it. Sure enough, a phone call to the SPCA revealed that the SPCA would not guarantee it would not kill them. So PAF rescued the rabbits. What is particularly interesting is that staff at the City showed so much interest in this that they actually asked the SPCA about it.

So in June, when PAF asked the SPCA for assistance for a feral cat at the huge Vancouver Drydocks, a big City taxpayer, with a hundred or more employees who could have found out that the SPCA would not do anything but kill their cats, the answer from Dr Lawson was yes.

Perhaps the same assistance would be available for other feral cat rescue societies where the municipality contracts with the SPCA. Protecting the contracts might result in some real assistance at last.