Kim Capri,
Chief Operating Officer,
BC SPCA

It is with dismay and some anger that I learned that two of the 34 dogs surrendered by the Baker-Pykes of Falkland on March 29, 2003 to Kamloops SPCA were destroyed by Kamloops SPCA on May 5, 2003.

I request that you tell me the reason that they were killed. They were never put into foster homes and allowed time and space to recover in a home environment. I have rehabilitated many puppy mill dogs - placing them in a home environment and letting them adjust is essential to their recovery. Keeping them in a cage only further destroys them.

On March 28 2003 I wrote to you and Mr Daniell asking that the BC SPCA not kill any of these dogs without giving them a fair chance to recover in a home environment and offering to foster any of these dogs and to pay their vet bills, as an alternative to death for any puppy mill dogs who are deemed unadoptable, This offer went unanswered. I am at a loss to understand how I could have made myself clearer.

In the wake of the killing of the Beaverdell dogs by Kelowna branch, all the puppy mill dogs housed at that facility have been, and to this day are, sequestered away behind locked doors and security tape. I have asked you and I have asked Craig Daniell, why it is that no one is allowed to even view these dogs, yet I have received no reply. Furthermore, as of last week, the Vernon facility has sequestered away its portion of the surrendered Baker-Pyke dogs, claiming that there is a Parvo outbreak. And yet it still allows the public to wander through its facility, tracking Parvo on their shoes to unknown destinations.

I will not be placated by a form letter response. Nor will I allow myself to be patronized with vague and delaying answers. I only want honest answers to the following questions:

1. Why were Brenda and Tamra killed?
2. Were they assessed under CAMP, and if so, by whom?
3. Why was I not contacted as an alternative to their deaths?
4. Which branches have Baker-Pyke dogs been sent to?
5. How many of those are dead?

When I made the decision to share with Craig Daniell all my investigative work on puppy mills in the Okanagan, I did so with fear and trepidation. My fear was that the BC SPCA would make media grandstanding seizures, collect donations and credibility, then quietly kill the seized. So far, my fears are being realized. I did not waste five years and risk my own safety to have the puppy mill dogs I was doing it for suffer and die at the hands of the Society that I trusted to give them a chance at a new life. If I had known the BC SPCA was going to continue to seize and kill, I never would have given those names and addresses. I would have continued on as I have always done, one dog out at a time, rehabilitated and rehomed.

I hope you will begin to direct SPCA branch managers that they must only give fair and compassionate treatment to the animals under their care. This will likely involve dismissing a number of employees, but if the BC SPCA is ever to become honest and animal-serving instead of deceitful and self-serving, this must be done.

Finally, I cannot criticize without offering solutions and alternatives: Get out of pound contracting and cease the unlimited surrender policy. If the BC SPCA does these two things, it will have all the time and space in the world to devote to animal welfare and rehabilitation, and it will never have to kill dogs like Brenda and Tamra again.

Jennifer Dickson President, Okanagan Animal Welfare Foundation
Research Coordinator, Animal Advocates Society of BC

Cc to:
Douglas Brimacombe, CEO
Craig Daniell, General Manager, Cruelty Investigations, BC SPCA
The President and Board of Directors, BC SPCA