This is complete irresponsibility on the part of the SPCA. It is irresponsible to the public and to the dogs.

From all my volunteer work, I know that many, many people will go down to a shelter and pick out a blonde coloured, medium sized dog, often female as they think this dog will be the 'nicest'. Black, big, male and old are often overlooked even though these dogs can be absolute sweethearts. Some wonderful family dogs are put down for stupid reasons.

Purebreds are the same...people like these dogs and often want to adopt them even though the match between the dogs and people might not be appropriate. The SCPA needs to be ethical to the people adopting and making sure not only
to do follow up phone calls and home visits to ensure proper dog and family placement but also better educating the public on how to pick out a dog suitable for the family and reminding people that going by (pure)breed and colour, gender and age is extremely faulty.

I have a baby in my family. Thankfully I am experienced with dogs and dog 'choices'..I have 2- 8 year old dogs and would absolutely not want a
younger, high energy dog. Next dog I get while I have young children in the house will be an older dog...and probably big, black and male as so many of these great dogs are overlooked.

I believe the mandate of the SPCA should not be to fill its shelters with dogs that people want to buy (this is all about profit), but should be
educating the public on dog guardianship and properly matching dogs to people.

Lori Cumiskey
Vancouver