I lost trust in the SPCA when I worked for them for a short time in 2000.
I knew that the SPCA in Vancouver had a poor reputation, but I hoped that the one on Saltspring Island would be different.
But I quickly found that the branch manager rarely showed up for work, and was from her actions, I concluded that she indifferent to the animals.
The chairperson of the local SPCA Board threatened to fire me if I spoke openly of the serious problems I witnessed.
When we parted ways, a volunteer, myself, and another Board member took our concerns to the rest of the local Board, as well as to John Van der Hoeven, at that time, the Manager of Field Operations at BC SPCA Head Office, the man in charge of all the branches.
All the material we provided them with (by Registered Mail) "disappeared".
Any correspondence I have since tried to have re: any issue with the BCSPCA has met with complete silence (except once when I used the word "media" in a letter to current Presdident of the Board of the BC SPCA, Mary Lou Troman, and had a reply in a matter of hours).
Most recently, after a complete change in staff at the Saltsping SPCA, and a new CAC, I e-mailed the local Branch CAC to ask if we could have a civil working agreement, as I rescue feral cats on the island.
They refused, saying that Head Office had advised that they not work with me.
I had always been happy to donate time, money and food to the SPCA when I thought they were a group devoted solely to the welfare of animals.
I lost all respect for them based on my own experience, and first hand accounts from friends and strangers alike, long before I heard of Animal Advocates Society.