September 16, 2009
Bob Busch, General Manager, Operations
BC SPCA Provincial Office
1245 East 7th Avenue
Vancouver, B.C. V5T 1R1
Mark Vosper, Manager, Maple Ridge SPCA
10235 Jackson Road
Maple Ridge, B.C. V2W 0A9

Dear Mr. Busch and Mark,
Re: Animal #172713
First of all, congratulations Mr. Busch on another successful Paws for a Cause walk! We are addressing this
letter to both of you since we’re not sure who made the final call. We were hoping our volunteering would just
carry on smoothly but an issue arose at the Maple Ridge shelter that is disturbing us.
Animal #172713 had only been homeless since July. It was a difficult adjustment for her to be in a cage and she
clearly let everybody know it. Yes she had a Manx attitude, but on the positive side she was about a year old and
very healthy. What is disturbing us so much is that the cat, now in foster care, barely got out with her life! She
was slated for euthanasia. No rescue group was called to take the cat. The MR SPCA shows no sign of working
with other rescue groups. Some rescues even specialize in harder to adopt ones. If the SPCA can’t find a home
for an animal, it’s still possible that another group with a different specialty and different sources can find it a
home. In this cat’s case, the cage environment was the key factor. This frustrated cat is loving her new foster
home and is apparently full of affection! We are so very thankful that this little cat is still alive. If a foster home
was not found, this little cat would be a statistic. Spirit wasn’t so lucky, in the spring she was euthanized for
showing the same type of behavior. Too late for Spirit who may have thrived outside of living in a cage.
Euthanasia seems the easy way out and we cannot believe this should have been an option with approved
rescues who could take the animal. We were so afraid that this cat #172713 wasn’t going to make it. Similar
hard luck cases used to be transferred to rescue, not killed. We feel that all options including transfer should be
looked at first and euthanasia should be a LAST resort. We hope you all understand why this is upsetting for us
as volunteers.
Sincerely,
Eva Renios,
Maple Ridge SPCA volunteer
cc: Michelle Rodgers, Volunteer Outreach Coordinator, BCSPCA Maple Ridge shelter
Diane Merenick, Bylaw Services Supervisor, District of Maple Ridge
Mayor Ernie Daykin, District of Maple Ridge
Councillor Craig Speirs, District of Maple Ridge