Municipal pounds are the only hope for humane treatment of animals because they are essentially voter-driven and when the voters in a municipality get upset enough about an issue, change is made.

It's a slow process, but at least it is a process. When the SPCA was in control of pounds in the lower mainland, there was no process - except the expansion of its business and increasingly ruthless and cheap business practices.

SPCA power, money, and secrecy, meant that no one could make it change, not from the inside anyway. It chewed up and spat out anyone who thought they could make it be humane and do real animal welfare.

Cruelty prevention has nothing to do with impoundment of stray animals. The two are inimical - they are a conflict of interest. But one (the control business) pays, and the other (cruelty prevention) costs, and that is why for decades the SPCA did no cruelty prevention and expanded its control business. And it did not ever do real animal welfare, and still doesn't.

Coquitlam cat people must approach council with their facts, concerns and solutions. That is how democracy works.

That is not how the SPCA, a top-down autocracy, highly secretive, and victimizing agency, works. Until it does, if ever, then animals are far safer in the hands of elected people and animal rescue people.