In response to the 15 year old who lives in Surrey, I have a few comments. Thank you for taking the time to question decisions made by the SPCA about how they decide which animals to kill and which animals get adopted. I think it's smart to ask questions of every organization that says it does real animal welfare, AAS included. I have alot of faith in AAS and know that they do true animal welfare, as I hope you found out in doing the research for your school project.

I agree that at times it does seem that all the public does is write letters and send e-mails around criticizing the SPCA and it may therefore seem that perhaps time could be better spent on rescuing, rehabilitating and rehoming animals. I can tell you that AAS spends the great majority of its time doing just that. In fact, helping chained dogs that the SPCA has done nothing for.

The truth is that the SPCA itself spends alot of energy giving the impression that they do true animal welfare when the facts show otherwise. There are a few SPCA branches that do great work, but speaking up for the rights of animals doesn't seem to be a consistent policy through all the provincial SPCA branches. I have personally written letters and have made phone calls to the SPCA about neglected and abused animals. Abuse and neglect that I witnessed and photographed. Almost nothing was done to alleviate the suffering of these animals. My own experience can be multiplied a thousand times to get a more accurate picture of the number of people frustrated with the SPCA's response to their concerns.

There is no animal organization in this province more powerful and more secretive than the SPCA. We live in a society where the 'collective consciousness' believes that the SPCA will always act when animals are neglected or abused. And the SPCA knows this and isn't stupid. As long as so many members of the public believe in the SPCA, donations will keep coming in.

Even without discussing details of how much money the SPCA receives from the public and other funding sources and how the money is spent, the SPCA could do alot of things differently on a very basic level. For example, it could adopt out only spayed or neutered animals, it could make sure that wounds or health problems are treated by a vet without delay, it could decide to not kill healthy animals for lack of space, it could work more consistently with animal rescue groups to rehome animals, and it could change its policy of unlimited surrender of pets. That's why I criticize the SPCA by writing letters and speaking out.

Like any organization, the SPCA doesn't have unlimited financial and human resources. But other organizations admit to limitations about what they can't do. The SPCA gives the impression that they rescue, rehabilitate and rehome almost every animal from almost every instance of animal neglect that they are made aware of. As long as the SPCA continues to adopt out intact animals and does nothing to prevent owner-surrendered pets, it will always have more animals in its care than it is able to cope with - without killing a lot of them. The problem becomes a revolving door where even the SPCA doesn't have the resources to care for an animal humanely.

The SPCA knows it has to kill a lot of the animals it takes in. Every animal lover in BC must ask themselves, "For what reason is the SPCA doing this? And why hasn't it done anything to stop the flood of animals that it takes in?"

Jeri-Lyn Ratzlaff,
Burnaby