| Some SPCA staff have been breeding animals for years: The day
job pays to kill excess animals, the side job pays to breed more.
The BC SPCA and the management of the Vancouver SPCA
know that staff (and some directors) breed animals. They could stop this by including it
under Conflict of Interest in their constitution. Why haven’t they? Do they
approve of breeding more animals? The employees who breed and sell animals are the
SPCA's own competition for homes for the pets in its "shelters".
The only ad that we’re aware of that the SPCA has ever run
regarding an animal issue (rather than a request for donations), is the carefully
inoffensive little ad urging everyone to spay and neuter their dog or cat, which ad is
either partly or entirely paid for by the BCVMA. We guess the SPCA means everyone should
spay and neuter except their employees.
And it is "inhumane" for
any to dock tails or crop ears (cosmetic mutilation) according to SPCA written policy -
except the for the SPCA's own breeder/employees, some of which do this, and advertise it!
From "Dogs in Canada" magazine, 1998 |
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The long-time superintendent of the Vancouver
SPCA/Pound in Burnaby, Carson Wilson, has been breeding Bouviers for years and openly
advertising the fact in the major breeders’ directory "Dogs in Canada".
Yvonne Savard worked for the SPCA for many years also, but left to work for
Petcetera in Vancouver. (See: The
SPCA and Petcetera - Behind the Scenes.) Wilson sells pups for as much as
$800. As a superintendent at the SPCA, he may make $30 an hour plus a brand new personal
use SUV, bonuses, benefits, perks, travel, and we’ve been told $500 a month gas
allowance. He crops the pups' ears and tails. This is called cruelty by such credible
organizations as the No-Kill San Francisco SPCA, PETA, Animals’ Agenda and all other
organizations that really do protect animals from cruelty.
In fact, it is against official SPCA policy.
Marion Barnes told AAS she has worked for the SPCA
for twenty years. And that she’s bred Persian cats for twenty years. She currently
works at the Vancouver SPCA/Pound in Coquitlam. AAS investigated Marion. She has at least
5 breeding females, and we've been told by another Persian breeder, that she has had almost
eighty cats and kittens in her basement suite. The cats spend their whole lives in cages.
She told us the price for her kittens is from $250.00 to $2500.00. When her breeders get
worn out, what does Marion do with them? We know she dumps them at another SPCA,
because the cat rescue network has to rescue them. And we know that the SPCA sells unsterilized purebreds, so Marion's dumped Persians
could end up back in a cage, being bred again. We asked her if she rescues Persians that
are abandoned at an SPCA? Absolutely not! She told us she won’t even
touch them in case she brings home some disease. Persians frequently end up at
SPCA’s because people get fed up with all their medical problems caused by genetic
deformities, and the daily grooming that is necessary. The Persians that end up at the
SPCA ought to break Marion’s heart, they are so matted and sore and dirty and sick,
but Marion did not indicate that.
A member of SPCA staff breeds a small breed of
dog. Small breeds are worth a lot of money.
A member of SPCA staff brought her little female dog, when it
was in heat, into the Vancouver SPCA Clinic one night and asked the night person if there
was a little unneutered male in the hospital she could "put her dog to".
Are any staff breeding Rottweilers? There may be as many as a
thousand Rottie pups bred a year in puppy mills, most of them sold to spend their short
miserable lives on the end of a chain. SPCA’s kill many Rottweilers a year. Are any
staff breeding wolf hybrids? The SPCA has a policy of automatically killing wolf hybrids.
We believe that there are many SPCA staff who are breeding animals.
Deborah Wold,
the manager of the Shuswap SPCA in Salmon Arm BC, breeds and sells many different dogs
some with cosmetically mutilated ears and tails (cropping and docking) which is against
the BC SPCA's own Policy Statement
"#19 - SURGICAL MUTILATION The BC
SPCA opposes the surgical mutilation of animals, except procedures performed by a licensed
veterinarian to alleviate suffering, or for reasons of injury or health. Other
unnecessary surgical procedures done purely for cosmetic purposes, or to disguise natural
imperfections of any animal, that are painful, distressful, or restrictive of the function
of the body part involved cannot be condoned."
Unless of course the mutilation is done by one
of the SPCA's employees.
Ms Wold also ships dogs to purchasers
sight unseen and disposes of old stock by offering it in "packages" as in
this ad from the Vernon Morning Star: "Shih Tzu, Cdn. Ch.
two year old male, four females, two to seven years old. Vaccinated, microchipped. Kennel
reduction- for sale as a package." The ad does not state that the dogs are sterilized
so they would be of interest to anyone wanting to set up another breeding operation.
Ms Wold is also in the 2002 Dogs in Canada breeder
directory, under Dobermans and Shih Tzus.
Ms Wold was a breeder when she was hired by the SPCA so
it cannot claim to be unaware. In September 2002, the AAS InfoBoard posted the
information we had on Ms Wold's breeding business (see http://www.animaladvocates.com/cgi/messageboard.pl/read/1245
and http://www.animaladvocates.com/cgi/messageboard.pl/read/1541
Many AAS supporters wrote the BC SPCA board of
Directors requesting them to enforce their own policy against cosmetic mutilation and to
write a Code of Ethics that would include the prohibition of all breeding of
animals by any SPCA employee or Director, until such time as the SPCA's
shelters are empty of excess, unsellable dogs, cats, birds, snakes, rats, gerbils,
hamsters, guinea pigs and other discarded creatures that the SPCA kills by the thousands.
The SPCA's employees who breed and sell are the SPCA's own
competition for homes for pets.
This is one letter from Joann Bessler, the creator of
the AAS BackYard Breeders Data Base (click here)
To Michael Steven, President
And the Board of Directors, BC SPCA
During your upcoming board meeting (September 2002) you may wish to consider the issue
of guidelines for employees of the BC SPCA. Below are listed the text of ads placed in the
Vancouver Sun and Province newspapers since June 20th 2002. The phone number in the ads
belongs to the Wolds.
20 June 2002: "DOBERMAN PINSCHER PUPS CKC Reg., vacc. Vet chk, CDN Champ sire.
Natural ears, $800; cropped $1100. 250-546-2125 Armstrong BC. wold@junction.net"
20 June 2002: "SHIH TZU red/wht female reg'd. Champion sire. 4 mos. old. $500.
250-546-2125, Armstrong, BC."
24 July 2002: "DOBERMAN Pinscher pups, Cdn. Champion sire, CKC, shots, vet
checked, Pets $800. 250 546-2125, Armstrong BC"
3 August 2002: "DOBERMAN Pinscher pups, Cdn. Champion sired, reg'd, vaccinated.
Excellent pedigree. Pets $800. (non-breeding). Ph (250) 546-2125, Armstrong BC"
10 August 2002: "August 10\2002 DOBERMAN Pinscher pups, Cdn. Champion sired,
reg'd, vaccinated. Excellent pedigree. Pets $800. (non-breeding 250-546-2125"
23 August 2002: "DOBERMAN PINSCHER PUPS registered, shots, tattooed. Canadian Chap
sire, great temperaments, versatility, family guardian. $800 natural ears, $1050 cropped.
(250) 546-2125"
In the Calgary Buy & Sell, 30 June 2002: "250-546-2125 Shih Tzu,black &
white, red & white, born Feb/2002, Canadian Champion father, US import mother, exc
pedigree, pets $600, breeding $850, incl airfare to Calgary"
In the Vernon Morning Star, 11 August 2002: "DOBERMAN Pinscher pups, registered, shots, tattooed, vet checked.
Canadian Champion sire, great temperaments, versatility, family guardian. $800. Natural
ears, cropped extra. 250-546-2125"
In the North Thompson Star Journal, 11 August 2002: ""DOBERMAN Pinscher pups, registered, shots, tattooed, vet checked. Canadian Champion
sire, great temperaments, versatility, family guardian. $800. Natural ears, cropped extra.
250-546-2125"
In the Kootenay Advertiser, 11 August 2002: ""DOBERMAN Pinscher pups, registered, shots, tattooed, vet checked.
Canadian Champion sire, great temperaments, versatility, family guardian. $800. Natural
ears, cropped extra. 250-546-2125"
Thank-you for your attention. Please let me know what decision the Board makes with
regard to this matter.
Sincerely,
Joann U. Bessler
Of course we heard nothing from the new, open, transparent, and
accountable BC SPCA.
Update: In November 2002, the BC SPCA adopted a policy that
employees hired in the future will not be allowed to breed and sell animals. And we
understand that the BC SPCA CEO finally got his own dog neutered.
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