AAS has heard hundreds of reports of employee indifference, cruelty, and intractable obtuseness. This week's story...

A stray cat was taken to the Vancouver SPCA only because the finder was assured by staff that the cat would not be killed. She was easily misled due to the BC SPCA's announcement in March 2002 of a "moratorium on killing" and in small print, "for space". Everyone in BC got the message that the words "moratorium on killing" intended. Hundreds of thousands of BC animal-lovers believed the SPCA was "no-kill" while the SPCA went on killing thousands of animals for all the other reasons on it's list of reasons that permitted it to kill. The SPCA denied it ever meant to imply it was no-kill.

After the legal waiting period to see if anyone claimed the cat, the SPCA killed it on the grounds that its teeth were not good. Outraged and consumed by guilt, the finder went right to the top of the BC SPCA to Dr Jamie Lawson, Manager of Animal Health, to voice her anger at being lied to. Dr Lawson told her that staff have been told to stop 'sugar coating' the truth and to tell people that any stray or surrendered animal might be killed, and that staff would be told again.

The SPCA has had two and a half years to train staff to stop lying about this and yet they are still lying. What are the possibilities that Dr Ledger can teach the causes of emotional suffering in animals to current SPCA staff, especially as the SPCA is still getting rid of employees who are capable of learning?