AAS did not believe that the charges against the Greater Vancouver Zoo would ever proceed to trial.

In spite of statements made by the BC SPCA's Manager of Cruelty Investigations such as...

"By staying the charges, this says to the zoo that as long as they eventually provide proper care for their animals, they won't be charged," said B.C. SPCA Marcie Moriarty, general manager of cruelty investigations." and "Basically you could torture a dog, but as long as you stop when you're given an order to stop, that would not be reprehensible."

...it is the PCA Act which requires the SPCA to issue an "Offence Warning Notice" which allow the animal's owner to make changes that will relieve the "distress" before seizing and/or laying charges (distress being the offence in the Act), and in fact, the SPCA has issued Offence Warning Notices and not seized or had charges laid many times before.

We have read no mention of whether the SPCA issued the Zoo an Offence Warning Notice (which the PCA Act requires) before having Crown lay charges, but if the Notice had been given to the Zoo when Hazina was first put in her miserable shed, perhaps Hazina would not have had to endure 19 months of suffering and the precedent that the SPCA complains of might not have been set.