New SPCA plan good for Abbotsford

By Lisa Jorgensen - LJorgensen@abbotsfordtimes.com

While news of changes from the B.C. SPCA has caused ripples of despair in Chilliwack and Langley, it's nothing but good news in Abbotsford.

The B.C. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals announced Tuesday that Abbotsford will house animals from the Chilliwack and Langley shelters, which are being closed due to both facilities being unable to meet the "society's standards for animal care."

While volunteers and staff at those locations were coping with what they saw as bad news, workers at Abbotsford's shelter were preparing to welcome more animals and a bigger facility.

"We're looking forward to . . . the changes," Abbotsford SPCA's Mike te Boekhorst said. "It is streamlining and it's something we need."

With the changes and more animals, te Boekhorst said they'll need more volunteers. "We're going to need it. Our volume will go up."

With increasing the number of animals, the shelter will also have to grow.

B.C. SPCA spokeswoman Lorie Chortyk said that they are planning on making Abbotsford the hub, expanding it to become a "state-of-the-art facility."

This is good news for both the animals and workers in Abbotsford.

Rather than their old system of keeping animals confined to cages and kennels, the new design will allow more common areas for animals to interact with one another.

"We know that more interaction helps keep them emotionally healthy," Chortyk said, adding that they are planning on working toward more interaction and more enrichment, which will be better for the animals' emotional and psychological needs.

In the short term, Chortyk said they plan on using temporary buildings at their site in Abbotsford, which sits on about one acre of land.

"There will be many more animals when even increasing fostering in Chilliwack and Langley," she said.

Within a year she said they plan to look at "totally redesigning" and transforming the current shelter into an enlightenment animal care centre.

"We want to create warm, friendly, clean, good shelters that people will want to come to," Chortyk said. The vision includes communal cat rooms with perches and a place for cats to move around and socialize with multiple places to perch, all of which will decrease stress levels in cats. For dogs, the plan is to have areas for exercise, instruction, a place for bonding and remedial training.

Even though they are closing the two shelters, the Chortyk said the B.C. SPCA has no plans to remove itself from each community.

"The community may view it as us pulling out of the community. That's not it at all.The community has made it clear that the old way we were doing things was not acceptable," Chortyk said.

So instead, they want to increase their presence in communities through community-based initiatives such as satellite adoption centres, foster care, partnerships with stores and veterinarians and expanding the capacity at the foster care centre based with Corrections Canada.

"We are trying to raise the standard of care and be more in the community rather than having them come to us in facilities we are not proud of. It helps to have a higher profile in the community," Chortyk said.

With substandard facilities in Chilliwack and Langley, Chortyk said they found that they were plugging too much money into these facilities and getting nowhere as they no longer were able to provide safe and adequate housing. By shutting the two down they will be able to use their resources to increase their focus on cruelty investigations.

While some volunteers in both cities weren't pleased with the news, Chortyk is hoping that they will volunteer at the Abbotsford shelter, where it will be the "regional hub."

"Change is always challenging," she said, adding that volunteers in Langley have been helping set up the B.C. SPCA's presence in the community.

Staff members will also move over to Abbotsford, making it more viable for the B.C. SPCA and Abbotsford.

Throughout the transformation process, Chortyk said that they will keep people up to date.

If anyone would like to volunteer at the Abbotsford SPCA or to make donations, please call the shelter at 604-850-1584.