In 2000, when the AAS website was launched, I wrote that if I were in charge of the BC SPCA I would hang a huge banner on the wall of the Board of Directors room and over the CEO's desk that read, KILLING IS NOT AN OPTION - FIND A HUMANE SOLUTION. I wrote that lack of money, lack of space, lack of resources, were not justifications for killing - that all these could be found if one was sincere. I argued that making space by killing the sick would be repugnant to a real animal welfarist.

Six years later, the BC SPCA is still killing the sick, still killing for space, still whining that it doesn't have the money, the space, the resources. Still blubbering that it hates to have to kill unwanted pets, but someone has to do it, as though the disposers of the weak and defenceless are wearing halos. If someone does have to do it, it should not be a Society that says it is doing animal welfare. That is a bald-faced conflict of interest.

The SPCA has to kill less every year, as every year more little groups form to do what the SPCA ought to do - real animal welfare. Less killing makes the SPCA look good and gets the SPCA donations, but it is all these other little organizations that deserve the credit. The little organizations don't whine about "hating to have to kill"; they don't whine about not having enough money; they don't add to the problem of unwanted pets by selling intact animals. They get on with it. They tackle root causes by cleaning up feral cat populations with humane and compassionate trap/neuter/return programs, by real spay/neuter assistance, and by sterilizing every animal that passes through their gentle and caring hands.