Before having my son I volunteered for a couple of years at the Vancouver City Pound. When my husband and I moved to a different part of the lower mainland I decided to volunteer at one of the local SPCA shelters.

It was quite a difference. At the City Pound, there were many, many dogs. There were also many volunteers that came in and out at various times during the day. The staff there, on the whole, were very friendly and welcoming...as volunteers, we all tried to make an effort to be courteous because of the many volunteers coming in and out at all times. As well, the city pound had a huge fenced in area, where volunteers were able to take the dogs and allow them to socialize with other dogs and the volunteers.

I was always concerned where the dogs went when they were adopted. I felt that the city pound going 'no-kill' and inviting foster people in was very noble, but was concerned as always about where the dogs would end up. I was very impressed that the city pound would load their dogs up and spay and neuter everyone so that all dogs were fixed before leaving their premises.

At the SPCA, dog walkers had to come at fixed times. And I will admit that the staff were not as nearly as friendly. Now, I don't know what either staff (the pound vs. the SPCA) had to deal with...I am quite sure there are many unpleasantries in their jobs, but I will say that I felt much more welcome at the city pound.

I truly felt that at the city pound, staff were concerned with the welfare of the dogs and were happy to see volunteers come in and out to walk them, hence why volunteers were not restricted to the times they could walk the dogs.

There was a yard at the back of the SPCA, but volunteers were encouraged to take the dogs for a walk. There were also way less dogs at this SPCA I was at (facilities were just not as large). What startled me most is one older german shepherd that I walked. He was full of energy and when I took him on this long walk, I noticed his teeth were quite yellow. I was surprised he was an older dog as he had so much energy.

When I went back the next week, I was told the dog had been adopted, and a week later when I went back, the dog was killed by the SPCA.
When I asked the volunteers why, they said, the dog had been checked by a veterinarian when adopted by this woman, and the vet had told her the dog was quite old and because he had diarrhea, the vet wondered if the dog had some gastrointestinal problems, so the dog was returned and then killed.

I was stunned.

My own dog is a shepherd cross and has food allergies which can be quite common in shepherds, so if I feed him anything with wheat or corn in it, he has diarrhea. As well, the stress of a shelter causes many, many dogs to have diarrhea. Had SPCA staff explained this to the woman? I did not speak directly to SPCA staff about this, however, I was so upset I never went back.

Is this animal welfare? When a dog is so stressed by its living conditions that it ends up with diarrhea (the same happened at VCP, but at least there were many,many volunteers walking the dogs to relieve some of that stress), and the dog is adopted out and then put down for reasons that seem totally unfounded to me?

Although the dog was older, he was a friendly, active dog. I suspect the SPCA knew this dog might be hard to adopt out, thus put the dog down.

My other questions are then, if this was an owner surrender, why take this dog in? Why not tell the owners they need to be responsible for the dog as an older dog is extremely difficult to adopt out?

If this dog was not an owner surrender, how about working with the public to find an appropriate foster home?

Lastly, how about a strong campaign to raise funds to make the shelter living conditions more livable? Larger kennels with old chairs in them for instance?

Although I know VCP put dogs down, in the years that I was there, I never walked a dog and went back to find the dog 'dead'. Whereas at the SPCA, I was only there for a few weeks before finding out a dog was put down.

What was upsetting were the reasons given for putting this dog down...and I could not watch this repeat itself so I left.

I remember thinking, it is a very sad day when a dog is better off at the city pound than at an SPCA run shelter when it is the SPCA that is supposed to be advocating for animal welfare.