I would like to express my concerns about this potential lawsuit. I write this as a person who has worked as a volunteer for the BC SPCA for three years. They do much good work, but recently they seem to have been having major problems. I believe that they have gone after Judy Stone before but she kept her website going. I hope that she will continue to do so.

I am also a Board member of the International Primate Protection League in the US. I will be going to San Francisco tomorrow, as my twin sister, Dr. McGreal, has been awarded one of the Chevron Environmental Awards.

The International Primate Protection League has been on the end of a SLAPP (Strategic lawsuits against Public Participation) suit. Eventually the lawyers for the animal dealers were fined $25 000, but the case took a lot of time and money to defend, in other words, a typical SLAPP suit. They used to be quite common in the US, but now many states (I think 19) are banning them right at the start of the case and throwing them out of court. They seem to be increasingly common here. Such groups as Friends of the Lubicon were attacked, as were many other groups.

Lawyers love these cases, as they are time-consuming, nit-picky and expensive. Just imagine the work of going through the thousands of pages on Judy's site! The SPCA probably doesn't expect this to end in court, just to be an exhausting experience for the smaller group who have neither the staff nor the resources to take on the wealthy SPCA. Our SPCA is a $20 million-a-year operation, so it can afford the most expensive lawyers in town. For a small group, like Animal Advocates, it is a major expense. How sad that this amount is being spent on lawyers, not the animals, which I feel is where the money should go.

For a brief primer see

http://www.miningwatch.org/emcbc/publications/toolkit/5.htm

The article goes into the reasons SLAPP suits are initiated. It is to be hoped that this case will be thrown out right at the start.There has been a new law which attempts to deal with this type of lawsuit.

For an account of some other cases see

http://ms101.mysearch.com/jsp/GGcres.jsp?id=E77u-CnoLBAJ&su=http%3A//ms101.mysearch.com/jsp/GGmain.jsp%3Fsearchfor%3Dslapp+suits+aims&u=http%3A//www.finearts.uvic.ca/%7Eelc/SLAPP.htm&searchfor=slapp+suits+aims

I am dismayed that one animal group will sue another one. It amounts to a total lack of ethics in my opinion. It costs a fortune to sue and the BCSPCA is using donor's money for this purpose. Judy has worked for years trying to improve animal welfare in our province. Our SPCA has made many blunders here- the Cheech case, failure to produce audited account, raids on well-run shelters, etc. Judy tries to bring these into the arena of public discussion.

The idea of these lawsuits isn't usually to win them. It's to shut opposing opinions out of discussions. Usually many defendants are named, so the result is chilling to others who might feel the need to criticise how the SPCA allocates its money.

Jean Martin
Lantzville BC