Vicki is an ex-employee of the Vancouver SPCA clinic who posted an astute and insightful post on the CYA messageboard about her experiences at the clinic of being forced to carry out Head Office policies that made her angry and despairing, and why she quit.

Just for the record, AAS has only criticized the head of the clinic, Doctor Lawson, not the employees. For years we helped SPCA clinic clients pay their bills, at the request of Ruth, one of the clinic administrators, and we helped to sneak out animals that were going to be euthanized at the clinic and we got them the vet care that the clinic could not or would not pay for, and we got them homes. Although I believe that too many of the employees at SPCA pounds are part of the problem, I did not ever think clinic staff were.

Vicki also said how at first when she read the AAS web site she was angry at AAS too, for being so confrontational and harsh, but she finally realized that AAS had a role to play in changing the things she hated at the SPCA clinic.

Vicki made a valid criticism that AAS had named actual SPCA employees who (AAS believed) were anti-animal. Vicki has made me think about this and here is my answer:

There are two people who forced the SPCA to reform, and both named names and signed their own names. That was Millie Sargent in Victoria and AAS http://www.animaladvocates.com/spca-victoria.htm. Fifty years of anonymous complaints and tippy-toeing had changed nothing - in fact as the SPCA's pound empire expanded, things got worse.

It was only when names were named and statements signed that the SPCA knew that two critics were so serious that they were willing to lose all and were willing to be vilified by those who didn't understand, and were willing to have their lives in a constant state of uproar and anxiety, that the SPCA stopped chuckling at the "little women" who they knew so well how to handle, how to placate, and flatter, and ignore, and paid attention .

They first tried to use the threat of suing Millie and I into silence, and then they were forced to reform when neither Millie or I would back down.

In Victoria, the Wests are gone, in Vancouver the pound empire is crumbling. I truly believe that none of this would have happened without the bold statement that naming names makes.

But Vicki, I am going to go over the web site (in my spare time) and see if I can remove any names, now that they have done their job. Thanks again for the thoughtful way you pointed this out to me.

Judy Stone