I am the treasurer of a small, non-profit animal welfare society here in Victoria . Our name is V.O.C.A.L. or Voice of Concern for Animal Life. We get calls daily from people who need help with their vet bills and help with other animal matters. I received a call yesterday from a woman who said she was a home support worker. She said that the people she was caring for had been away from their home for 2 months ( she didn't say why ). When they returned home, they found that there were 17 feral (or wild) cats and kittens living on their property.

The woman had called the S.P.C.A. for help and was told that if she trapped the cats and brought them to the S.P.C.A. along with the money it would cost to spay and neuter them, the S.P.C.A. would do this & then return the cats to her. She was very upset with this and said to me " if no one does anything about these cats , there will be 100 or more here within a year."

It is about time the public knew what our S.P.C.A. doesn't do. They don't take in stray animals. They don't help with feral cats. They no longer have a low-cost spay/neuter clinic. As far as I know, they accept only owner-surrendered animals.

V.O.C.A.L. is a small group with no shelter ( unlike the SPCA ) and a very small budget ( unlike the SPCA. ). We do not have the resources, financial, space or man-power, to deal with situations like the one I have just described. And yet, we, like all the other small, non-profit animal welfare groups in town ( Greater Victoria Animals Crusaders, The Cats Rescue Corps, The Nana Foundation ) are asked constantly to do the kind of work that I believe should be done by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals or the SPCA.

What are we going to do about Victoria's SPCA? It is not doing what it should be doing for Victoria's animals who need their help. The small groups cannot cope forever with the mess that the SPCA leaves us.

Diana Leeming, VOCAL