By Lisa Morry - lmorry@chilliwacktimes.com

The five members of the local SPCA Community Advisory Council quit their positions last week during a meeting that was supposed to be an orientation for potential new board members.

Instead the meeting was attended by SPCA executives and centered on a discussion of differences after the SPCA announced it would close the Chilliwack and Langley shelters and expand the Abbotsford shelter.

"We made the decision as a group really," said former CAC board member Norma Popescul, a 12-year volunteer.

Former CAC board member Juanita Stander said she quit because she feels Chilliwack needs an animal shelter.

"Our shelter, although poor, is better than Abbotsford and many others," Stander said. "We also service right up to Hope and Boston Bar. Our concern is that people are not going to drive to Abbotsford. They're going to dump animals anyway."

Wendy Weber, who attended the meeting and was considering standing for a position on the CAC, said she has decided not to have anything more to do with the SPCA.

"I will not continue to be involved with this organization. There's just too many problems," she said.

A long-time SPCA volunteer, Weber said she can no longer stand going to the shelter because she feels helpless to assist the animals.

"I can't take it any more. There's no homes for them," Weber said. "I can't save them all and now I'm finished."

However, Weber has taken a little something home with her. She has been fostering rabbits dropped off at the

SPCA and now has 14 of them on her property. She was giving medication to a sick bunny as she spoke, she said. Two others were recovering from spay and neuter surgery.

She said the people who dropped these animals off probably thought they would find good homes but that's not the case, Weber said. She will care for these rabbits for the rest of their lives, she said.

Popescul said she is moving on from the SPCA but she still has some unfinished business. She said it is her goal to get Ena Vermerris her money back.

Vermerris is the retired nurse who spent $30,000 of her own money and solicited community donations to build a cat shelter in memory of her 13-year-old nephew who died 10 years ago of leukemia.The SPCA announced that the Chilliwack shelter would close just weeks after Vermerris' cat-arena officially opened.

Vermerris, also attended last week's meeting as a prospective CAC member, but now she won't be running for a position.

"I am not going to be associated with the SPCA after what happened," she said.

Vermerris said SPCA executives offered at that meeting to open the cat-arena for four hours a day. Vermerris said she did not give them her answer right away, preferring to discuss the idea with other volunteers first.

Their conclusion is that four hours a day is not a viable option, Vermerris said. Firstly, Vermerris is concerned with the welfare of the cats and if the rest of the shelter is closed and the cats are depending on infrastructure that is linked to the rest of the shelter, there could be problems.

If the cats are left on their own the other 20 hours of the day, then they will suffer without enough human contact, Vermerris said.

"It isn't going to be conducive to socialization," she said.

Then there is consideration for other animals.

"If you have a partial presence, then people are going to dump animals," Vermerris said. "It still does not deal with the situation in the valley."

Vermerris said she heard that there were 1,800 cats brought to the shelter in 2001 and only about 200 adopted.

"What's going to happen is we're going to be overrun," she said.

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