AAS was sent a link (below) to a pup at the Victoria SPCA with the exasperated comment: "This drives me nuts...how the hell did she end up in the shelter? Golly, how I hate the open surrender policy."

But it works for the SPCA. Lots of fresh product for the pet-shopping browser looking for a cheap deal to choose from. Lots of traffic through SPCA stores. Lots of exposure and looking necessary and busy saving animals. All that means lots of donations and wills being written by gullible old men and women.

The SPCA would have to be very ethical indeed to give up "sheltering and shuffling" - very ethical to close down the backyard breeders who produce all the free stock; very ethical to refuse to take every cat and dog dragged or hauled through its doors; very ethical to say, we're full, you'll have to take responsibility for your decision to buy a pet because we won't kill a pet already here to make room for yours, nor will we kill yours as soon as you pull out of the parking lot.

Sheltering and shuffling is what attracts the big bucks. Organizations like AAS, struggling to expose the shelter shuffling scam and who wouldn't run an abandonment-enabling "shelter" no matter how much money was offered, never get big donations. The SPCA knows where the money is, but the money is tainted.

And to "explain" to the public how the SPCA isn't responsible for this? The SPCA says it's not its fault - it's those "irresponsible owners" fault.

But who provides the second-hand stores? Who provides the free euthanasia? Who provides the easy dumping ground? Who supplies the cheap pets and guard dogs? And who has 20 million dollars? The SPCA knows how to run its business.

Open surrender is the rotten foundation on which the SPCA has built its fortune. It underlies all supporting policies: pound contracting (the buildings and staff trained in euthanasia are already in place and can be used to make more money) and avoidance of legislation and programs to limit the source of free product.