Your Vancouver Province
SPCA wants to raise $1.5m
Group also wants tougher laws to protect animals
Don Harrison, With a file from Lena Sin, The Province
Published: Monday, May 14, 2007
The SPCA is hoping to raise $1.5 million in its Biscuit Fund to help abused animals.
The fund is named after Biscuit, a small stray found in 2003 in a Dawson Creek garage, where he had dragged himself after being stabbed six times in the neck. The knife was still in his neck when he was found.
No vital arteries were hit and Biscuit is today a happy dog living elsewhere in B.C.
"We are trying to raise $1.5 million" to give animals a second chance at life, said the SPCA's Simon Trevelyan.
Marcie Moriarty, the SPCA's general manager of cruelty investigation, said the need for the fund, and tougher legislation, has never been greater.
The Province reported last week that the SPCA had recently seized 16 dogs from accused animal abuser Chris Camping of Williams Lake.
Five of the 16 dogs were so sick they had to be destroyed. The other 11 are improving but require expensive care.
When the animals were seized, Camping was already facing four animal cruelty charges in connection with earlier seizures of 75 abused dogs in 2004 and 50 dogs in 2006. Three of those dogs had to be euthanized.
Moriarty called Camping "one of the worst [animal cruelty] offenders."
Williams Lake Mayor Scott Nelson says the town is outraged the courts have not moved faster on Camping's cases -- and that he's still allowed to own dogs.
The SPCA receives only $71,000 of its $1.8-million budget from the B.C. government and was recently told Victoria could not afford more.
The SPCA provides care for 50,000 abused and abandoned pets and wild animals each year.
Moriarty said she is "cautiously optimistic" improved laws will appear next year. There may be a conflict with the agriculture ministry, which oversees the killing of animals for food, also monitoring for abuse.
Trevelyan implied Victoria is out of step with the public, which views animals as deserving of many of the protections people receive.
"I would rather see [the animal cruelty file] under the attorney-general," he said of the ministry responsible for public safety.
But Agriculture Minister Pat Bell said, "I don't think that [which ministry] is as relevant as giving the SPCA appropriate tools" to investigate abuse and enforce the law.
- For more on the Biscuit Fund, visit spca.bc.ca/biscuit.