July 12/04 the BC SPCA held a Public Forum at the Victoria branch on "Shelter Animal Management Practices". This is the SPCA's latest name for how it intends to deal with all the hard-to-sell dogs that are part of its pet-shuffling business - a business that is dependent on a constant supply of product and which the SPCA's unlimited surrender policy provides. As far as we can tell, the whole shebang is named CAMP (Companion Animal Management Program), which includes a dog temperament test, and is supposed to include rehabilitation programs and a program to match dogs to new owners.

The first test CAMP used was lifted from the Hetts Test in the U.S. Hetts is the test that uses colour scales. Dogs are either Red Zone: not rehabilitable and very dangerous (like Cheech!), or Orange Zone: rehabilitatible with a bit of time and money spent on them, or Green Zone: quickly sellable with no time or money spent.

A lot of guessing has to be made with the SPCA of course, not because of it being secretive, oh no! The SPCA, in its genuine effort to be 'open, transparent, and accountable' somehow has neglected to show anyone any proof of the test's validity or even what the heck it is. (Excuse the sarcasm, but really the SPCA brings out the worst in real animal welfarists.)

It hardly matters what the test is - it only matters what the intent of the test is. Any agency that takes an unlimited number of unwanted pets to supply its pet-shuffling business has to do something with the ones that no one wants to buy. A temperament test is a way for the SPCA to explain to the media and the public why it kills so many hard to sell dogs - end of sentence.

Real animal welfarists don't use a test because real animal welfarists have no intention of killing a dog instead of spending the necessary time and money to rehabilitate it. Real animal welfarists do not kill one dog to make room and money for another dog. Real animal welfarists advise owners of pets they don't have room or money for, how to rehome their pet. We believe that the intent of the SPCA test is to protect its pet-shuffling business's bottom line by getting rid of dogs that may take time and money to sell. Cheech is only the most public of the many proofs of this.