ANIMAL ADVOCATES WATCH DOG WEB - THE PROCESS OF REFORMING THE BC SPCA

In May, 2001, the BC SPCA announced that it would not be suing Judy Stone, president and founder of AAS and creator of the AAS web site for libel afterall, and that they would in fact, be reforming, which was the condition she made before she would agree to alter the AAS web site, in her letter to their lawyers. (to read the letter, click here) The SPCA announced it would be holding open, accountable, transparent, public meetings and then promptly held a secret, "by invitation only" meeting of it's "critics" and stakeholders, from which AAS was excluded. If AAS isn't one of their "critics, who is?

When we found out, we wrote the letter below which resulted in AAS being invited to the subsequent "by invitation only" meeting. Is it any wonder that we are skeptical about the SPCA's sincerity?

The BC SPCA head office has been giving the impression that they were kept in the dark about the salaries of executives at the Vancouver Regional SPCA. This is disingenuous at best.

All CEO Douglas Brimacombe and President Michael Steven had to do is what we did - phone Revenue Canada, Charities Division and get the public financial reports.

Form T3010 E, has a section (page 6, Section F: Remuneration and Benefits) that shows the salary ranges of the five most highly compensated employees in the charity.

Vancouver Regional SPCA's Forms T3010 E clearly show the escalating salary of someone there. Someone earned a minimum of: 1996: $70,000; 1997: $90,000; 1998: $110,000; 1999 and 2000: $150,000. Those are 40% yearly increases.

This is the same form that the BC SPCA is also required to complete every year, so we find it not believable that the BC SPCA was unaware of the increases at Vancouver Regional Branch.

The presidents and directors of the BC SPCA had a legal duty to find out what Vancouver Regional branch presidents and directors were paying their executives, the first time Vancouver Regional refused this information to the BC SPCA.

How many years has this gone on? It is vital to know that. The BC SPCA has used the public disclosure of the compensation paid Vancouver Regional SPCA's CEO, Douglas Hooper, to break the power of Vancouver Regional branch, to take it over along with its ten million yearly budget. Very convenient.

And now they want all of us to just go away and leave them alone.

The man who is deflecting further investigation by taking full responsibility for all the other directors and presidents who neglected their legal duties to inquire and know, veterinarian and ex-president of Vancouver Regional branch, Michael Dear, made a public apology and excuse that he did not understand what he was doing. We find this not believable also.

If there is no law suit between Douglas Hooper and the SPCA, will the public be told why, and if he was paid the $400,000 golden handshake Dr Dear obligated the SPCA to pay him? (Update - there will be a very expensive lawsuit, see Courier article, October 29/01)

And when will all salaries at the SPCA be made public? The dear old ladies who send $10 a month out of their pensions and have left bequests from their estates so that the SPCA can go on "helping animals" even after they are dead, deserve to know this.

Judy Stone,
President,
Animal Advocates Society of BC

July 18, 2001
The Community Consultation Panel
BC SPCA

Why are you holding exclusive meetings when you have said repeatedly and publicly that this "process" will be open, transparent and accountable?

We would like to be invited to attend the follow-up meeting to the first secret meeting to discuss the SPCA's lack of enforcement of the PCA act. If we are not, we can only assume that we are not welcome because we know too much; that there isn't a deceptive statement that can be made by the SPCA that we have not the evidence that can refute and correct it; that only we have all the evidence that the SPCA is self-serving and dishonest and has been for at least fifty years and so can point out when it is continuing to plan to serve itself; that only we have a full overview of the all the SPCA's perfidy and so can prevent future dishonesty.

An organization with this range and depth of comprehension should be welcomed. And yet we are being excluded.

We think the SPCA is missing a chance to profit from our years of work collecting, collating, and documenting the evidence of its generations of deceit and self-serving.

Your exclusion of us means that we will have to continue to tell what we believe is the truth on our web site.

As we are sure you are aware, we have not added any more evidence of SPCA dishonesty and indifference to animals' suffering to our web site since you announced you were going to reform.* We are not afraid to put more evidence up; we abstained as an earnest of good faith. But since it is clear that we are not to be included in any of the meetings that matter, that reason to abstain from adding evidence to the web site no longer exists.

Judy Stone,
President,
Animal Advocates Society of BC

*(March 16/02) This has since changed: SPCA "reform" has so far only happened on paper; it is still killing for all the same reasons and has not announced it will discontinue contracting for pound services in the future, and so it must go on killing for lack of space, and go on pretending it doesn't; and so AAS must continue to expose the SPCA until it understands honesty and animal-serving, not self-serving.

It took this letter to be included in the SPCA's meetings. So much for being "open, accountable, and transparent". Is it any wonder we are skeptical about the SPCA's "reform"?

April 2002 - follow the process, click here