I can relate to Ivy's story. The Vernon SPCA did the very same thing to a dog named Scruffy last year.
On Christmas Eve, 2001, a tiny pup, only 2 weeks old, was thrown from a moving vehicle in a garbage bag onto my friend's front lawn. I ended up taking her in, and over the holidays, while I was in the pet supply store buying puppy formula, I saw the Vernon SPCA's list of dogs available for adoption on the bulletin board. On it was a dog named Scruffy and her six pups, all terrier crosses, 2 weeks old, all surrendered to the "shelter" over Christmas. This description matched my pup. This must be her family, I thought.
Excited, I went to the shelter and positively identified one of these pups as an identical twin to mine. There was no doubt in my mind- Scruffy was her mum, and the pups were her siblings. I was told by numerous shelter staff that Scruffy had been deliberately bred, that she was malnourished and neglected, and that she and her pups had been surrendered because the owner was admittedly incapable of caring for them.
I planned to buy my pup's mother out of the SPCA as soon as the pups were weaned. I knew the pups would be sold easily by the SPCA (although with no screening, and into what kind of "home" one can only imagine)but I feared her mum Scruffy would be not as desirable a product, and would be sentenced to months in a chainlink cell, until lack of space signed her death warrant.
So when the pups were six weeks old, I went to the shelter and inquired as to what date Scruffy would be available for adoption. To my horror, I was told that she would not be put up for adoption, but that she was "going back". This meaning that the SPCA was returning her to her owner.
I asked how they could return a dog ,who they admitted had been neglected, to its abuser. I was told that they didn't want to, but that they had no choice. I argued back that they did have a choice, that the dog had been surrendered to them, and was thus their property. They lamely told me that the dog wasn't "technically" surrendered. I asked, why then, did the word "surrender" appear all over her paperwork? They told me that the person who had "surrendered" her wasn't technically her owner, so therefore it didn't count.
On January 16, 2002, the Vernon SPCA sent Scruffy and one of her pups back to their neglectful owner.
When I asked shelter manager Tom Bishop if Scruffy's owner had at least paid Vernon SPCA for essentially boarding his dog for 6 weeks he replied, most magnanimously: "Oh no, we didn't ask him for any money, but we did get to keep 5 pups".
So then, how is the Vernon SPCA any different from a pet shop or puppy home retailer in this scenario? They took puppies, 5 little lives to sell at $120 each, in lieu of fines or payment from a neglectful dog owner who deliberately bred his dog. And they sent Scruffy back to her neglectful home, unspayed, and with no future contract to have her spayed.
They knew how malnourished Scruffy was in that home. They knew that one of her pups had been thrown from a car in a garbage bag. They knew she had been deliberately bred. And they gave her back and sold her pups in lieu of charges.
Because of dogs like Ivy and Scruffy, the SPCA MUST reform. The first step to reform is getting out of pound contracting. Only a pound contract and subsequent open door policy forces SPCA's to treat animals like product rather than sentient beings.

For the record, I still do not know where Scruffy is today. I think of her constantly. Her pup, Noelle, is one year old now, and is the light of my life. She does not remember ever being thrown away in a garbage bag on a freezing Christmas Eve. But I sure do. And I remember shelter manager Tom Bishop trying to placate me that day, when I criticzed him for giving Scruffy back to her owners. He offered for me to bring my pup Noelle up to the shelter any time if I felt she was too much work, and she could be "put up for adoption" with her remaining brothers and sisters. Over my dead body I said.