Those were the SPCA's salad days when it looked to the Board and to CEO Doug Brimacombe that it was going to be roses, roses, all the way.

Oh dear, oh dear! That was before the Vancouver SPCA volunteers went on TV to expose the SPCA's killing of good dogs to make space and the SPCA outright lied about the dogs...on air!

That was before Brimacombe reacted by frantically announcing a moratorium on killing for space that employees only found out about when they were greeted with line-ups of people wanting to dump their pet at the new no-kill SPCA that they had read about in the Sun, and some of the employees threatened mutiny - also publicly!

That was before Brimacombe and his supporters drove the SPCA to the brink of bankruptcy. By May of the year after Ms Vogel's effusions, Brimacombe was nothing but a law suit to secretly settle.

That was before the press smelled the SPCA's blood and wanted to know why it was losing so many long-time municipal dog-catching contracts and the union helpfully told the press all about the SPCA's financial mess.

That was before all the other P.R. nightmares, like the Sun's Barbara Yaffe's article "A Prison Camp for Animals" in which she repeats a volunteer saying the Burnaby SPCA is an "Auschwitz for Animals".

Then there was the P.R. nightmare that grew legs and stomped all over the SPCA, the Raid on Forgotten Felines. And the King of Bad P.R. - "Cheech's Great Escape!" Not even Hollywood could have dreamed that one up! The new CEO stickhandled that little incident into a full-blown nightmare. It became the story that wouldn't die and even now it is still being used by the media.

That was before a judge found that an SPCA seizure was illegal and unlawful.

Those were the days, but they are long gone. The media is watching and waiting and the SPCA is still feeding it disasters. Soon to come - the law suit goes public. Ms Vogel supports that looming disaster. Oh dear, oh dear....