We decided to put the BC SPCA's Violence Link Project to the test. We waited three months from the time of the press release (November 19, 2003), to give the program a chance to get up and running, then we phoned all the organizations included in the list of partners on the project. We did this in February of 2004 and were not surprised to learn that in every case the BC SPCA had no real support in place for victims of violence. There were no foster homes available for the pets of abuse victims. We were consistently told by SPCA Head Office and branches that we checked with that it didn't "have the resources". All the BC SPCA could offer was for the victim to surrender their pet to the SPCA (and an unknown fate), or in some cases, the victim could pay the SPCA to board their pet. When we informed the partners in the project of this, most were shocked and surprised, and some were a little angry.

We generously waited another three months before posting our findings, in the hopes that given six months from the date of the press release, the BC SPCA would have the program up and running, and that victims of violence would by now be able to turn to the Society for the help it claims to give, but alas, the results were the same.

Here are our findings when we telephoned the list of partners...