From the SPCA's Fast Track: February 21, 2006

"Man Arrested After Routine Visit from SPCA

A Surrey dog owner got more than he bargained for recently after a routine visit from an SPCA animal protection officer. The SPCA officer attended a complaint about a 13-year-old German Shepherd suffering from untreated skin and ear infections. The owner was ordered to take the dog to a vet immediately, but he refused to do so and a warrant was obtained later that day to take custody of the dog so that she could receive the care she needed. As part of the warrant the attending RCMP officer ran a check on the dog’s owner and discovered that there were several outstanding warrants out for his arrest on assault and other charges. He was immediately arrested and taken to jail. Moral of the story: Treat your pets properly!!"

This is excellent news. But there is so little consistency. We know of a dog that is chained to a decrepit doghouse that has open sores on its body, but when the SPCA is phoned it says that it can't do anything as the dog has food, water, and shelter (of sorts), even though it has had over 50 complaints about the dog. Of course, this is only one of many dogs that we know of that the SPCA shrugs its shoulders at. Recently we reported two dogs that are on short ropes in garages, one in Burnaby and one in Richmond and we were told by the SPCA that there is nothing wrong with that.