THE PROVINCE
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Barking up a different tree
Municipalities weighing alternatives to troubled SPCA
Kent Spencer
The Province
December 17, 2004
When the SPCA loses its animal-care contract in Delta on Jan. 1, it will be the seventh time the non-profit society has been spurned by a Lower Mainland municipality in recent years.
Bad publicity, a financial scandal and concerns about how many dogs are euthanized have turned municipal governments away from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
The Delta contract was lost after an uproar about Cheech, a former guard dog sitting on death row. When SPCA staffers Amanda Muir and Kirsten McConnell took Cheech into hiding, Delta council sided with the dognappers. Muir and McConnell are now taking a central role in the new municipally backed Delta Humane Society.
"The SPCA is driving away good people like Amanda Muir,"said Judy Stone of a group called Animal Advocates.
"She is their wakeup call."
Other municipalities that took over animal care themselves or hired others to do it are Abbotsford, Langley City, Langley Township, Coquitlam, Port Moody and North Vancouver District.
Richmond recently took over the enforcement part of its SPCA contract, while Surrey took a hard look this week before signing on for one more year.
In the era of bad publicity and downsizing, the $824,000 Surrey contract was a major coup. "We're pretty confident we have a long-term future with Surrey," said B.C. SPCA CEO Craig Daniell.
Contrast that view with that of Coun. Dianne Watts, who doesn't sound so sure of the society's role beyond 2005: "There's been a discussion with a variety of community groups. Information is coming about other alternatives. Coquitlam took it on themselves. When Surrey's contract expires it will have to be looked at again."
Stone welcomes the SPCA's reduced involvement: "There is hope for animal welfare at pounds if the decisions are voter-driven, not business-driven."
The society has also been rocked by financial disclosures in which salaries paid to senior executives were deemed excessive. And recent developments have not helped its bottom line. The SPCA posted a $5-million loss in 2003, and it expects to lose about $1.5 million this year.
"We've turned a significant corner, reducing our overall expenses," Daniell said. "We want to use our donations to perform our primary mandate, which is putting people on the road to deal with cruelty to animals."
The SPCA has retained contracts in Pitt Meadows, Port Coquitlam, Burnaby, North Van City and Maple Ridge. It also operates a shelter for West Vancouver.
Vancouver and New Westminster have always performed their own animal-welfare duties.