The commnets Lani made, though well meaning, are way off base.

The SPCA was not doing those things Lani mentioned: improving procedures, changing laws, and creating educational programs. Until AAS exposed the many flaws and deceits by the BCSPCA, there was no SPCA for anyone to work with!

I think of the unreformed SPCA as a giant corporate free-for-all: employees who made decisions without any accountability and who made their own rules up as they went to suit the moment, failure to properly record and investigate cruelty complaints, management who actually prevented cruelty investigations from even happening, non-animal loving staff and sub-standard shelter care which contributed to animal suffering, a public relations department who perpetually distorted facts to cover up reality from the public and whose apparent unspoken policy was to only do what got the most donations and in front of a TV camera, management who went unchecked and set their own salaries, lack of consistency with policies between branches, staff who bred dogs and cats thereby contributing to pet overpopulation, an ineffective Board of Directors who behaved more like "yes" men and women with their proverbial heads stuck in the sand, a head office who made no attempts to lobby our Provincial Gov't for changes to our PCA Act, and volunteers who's many years' of complaints fell on deaf ears and were either ignored or kicked out of the shelters because they noticed some of the above.

These are just some of the many reasons why there was no SPCA with which to work. It was an impossible situation which has only recently been made somewhat better because of the tireless efforts of AAS. The only way to get the BCSPCA to change was to expose it for what it REALLY was, and then to monitor it's progress through the reform. When all is said and done, we can be hopeful that one day there will be a BCSPCA that everyone in the animal community will be proud to work with.