July 24, 2004
Craig Daniell, CEO,
Board of Directors,
BCSPCA,
Vancouver, BC
cdaniell@spca.bc.ca ; mltroman@ntouchcorp.com ;p_mackillop@telus.net ; vrenneberg@spca.bc.ca ; vanessa.lycos@shaw.ca ; zred@telus.net; carla_maruyama@hermanmiller.com ; charger@citytel.net ; tinakcr@hotmail.com ; enlepage@shaw.ca ; g-peterson@shaw.ca ; tigerbowen@yahoo.com ; kared@telus.net ; thebad3@shaw.ca ; kimby_59@yahoo.ca ; phyllisgregg@telus.net ; mthorntn@pris.bc.ca
Dear Mr. Daniell,
Greater Victoria Animals' Crusaders regrettably must withdraw our support of the BC SPCA due to impending implementation of the DTA4 Assessment Tool and the cancellation of all community programs.
Many of us within the Greater Victoria Animals' Crusaders have been members of the BC SPCA for more than 10 years, some more than 30 years, so this decision has not been taken lightly.
The BC SPCA is supposed to be "THE" Society for the protection and care of the animals. In Victoria, nothing could be farther from the truth. In Victoria the BC SPCA accepts only owner-surrendered animals and a few transfers from Victoria Animal Control and other BC SPCA branches. Unfortunately the Victoria branch also often has a long wait-list which is never publicized which also adds greatly to the confusion and negatively impacts the animals involved.
The BC SPCA has no community spay/neuter plan, has no pre-surrender counselling, no pre-adoption counselling, no post- adoption counselling and no follow-up program. The Victoria branch has little in the way of in-house rehabilitation and appears to be expecting to draw all the resources for rehabilitation
from the community to implement DTA4 without sharing any of the financial resources also drawn from the community.
Victoria is an animal-loving community with a big heart and it is simply unacceptable for the BC SPCA to be collecting donations from the public for Victoria's animals and providing little if anything to them.
Yours sincerely,
The Board of Directors
Greater Victoria Animal's Crusaders