In a Vancouver Sun article of August 29th, veterinarian, Dr Moe Milstein wrote, "Studies show that the pet most likely to be relinquished to shelters is a young adult dog, 5 months to 2 years of age. What did these six million animals do to deserve to be killed? The answer from these studies is that the animals failed to meet their owners' expectations. Pets at the greatest risk were those that were acquired for children, followed by those that were given as a gift or taken over from a friend."

The SPCA's directing minds just keep stumbling from one mistake to another. In 2001, when the SPCA began its free-fall from a huge hundred-year monopoly on animal-lover's donations and on the media/public perception that it was the only animal welfare organization in BC, to the financial and P.R. black hole it willingly stepped into, it has chosen more of what used to work, but won't work anymore. It chose to ramp up its P.R.

The temptation must have been enormous. It had worked so well for so long. The media did not question the SPCA's P.R. line that it hated to have to kill so many animals - that it took "saintly" people to do this that were braver and nobler than the rest of us. The media did not question the SPCA when it said over and over that the villain was the "irresponsible" pet owner who did not sterilize their pet, when the SPCA was letting its own employees breed and sell pets and it sold intact pets by the thousands every year. The media did not question the SPCA "euthanasia" statistics even though they were wildly contradictory and improbable. The P.R. boss who said in 2001 that the SPCA only kills 1% of animals still has her job. She also said that Cheech "lunges at children's throats". If he ever did, what is the SPCA saving the proof for? Is it going to pull it out of a hat at the trial for defamation it is ruininously pursuing against AAS?

The media is no longer in the SPCA's pocket and millions of dollars in donations are going to many other real animal welfare organizations.

In order to keep its unlimited surrender policy - the one that means that it has to kill unsellable animals and that creates and encourage a culture of pet dumping, but which provides all the SPCA's free product for resale - the SPCA ramped up its retailing advertising - in other words it chose to sell more product, faster. It turned to Palmer Jarvis DDB, the very P.R. firm that produced an ad for the Vancouver Aquarium (another animal-using business disguised as animal welfare and education) that was so staggeringly offensive that the Aquarium had to pull it.

The SPCA, with unblushing arrogance, unveiled its newest TV ads P.R. in August 2003. The ads were anti-animal welfare. They promoted buying dogs with the same ad tactics used to sell cars and skateboards. They appalled real animal welfarists who only give lives to people who have been screened for stability, maturity, and the ability to handle the problems that always come with a second-hand animal. These ads were puerile, frivolous, insulting, animal-using and should have horrified the SPCA as they horrified real animal welfarists. Instead, the SPCA was proud as punch and lapped up the awards that the incestuous media and P.R. firms circulate amongst themselves.

The ads promoted the very reasons that so many dogs are dumped in the first place and re-dumped after being sold by the SPCA to self-serving pet consumers on a whim. These ads were retail consumer business ads. No real animal welfarist would have touched ads like these with a barge pole.

Here is a reaction to the ads that typifies the market the ads targeted: http://www.ihaveanidea.org/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.pl?board=CAMPAIGNTALK;action=print;num=1062188132 hahah.. i really like the "friends" and the "room-mate" verisons. Great humerous approach, which actually makes you wanna adopt a pet..

We can't count the number of times that we have been begged to take a dog that was purchased at an SPCA that developed "problems" and when wanting to return it to the SPCA, the purchaser was told that the dog would be killed if it were returned. What a heck of a great business! No after sales service, no money back, and a death threat if you try to return your "unsatisfactory" goods.