As president of The B.C. and Interior Dog Breeders Association, in response to your article about the Community Consultation Report, 2001 and re: the recommendations of the participants:
It not surprising to me that the BC SPCA has not implemented any of them. In my opinion there is no real interest in true Animal Reform by the BC SPCA's Administration. And unless the Provincial and Federal Governments force them to act, I don't believe they will do it on their own.
I have tried over the last year to correspond with the BC SPCA's CEO, Craig Daniell. I sent a letter on February 04, 2004 outlining our association's wish to be included in any discussions about "Animal Welfare". We, as Dog Breeders, needed to be included in any talks.
I also sent a letter to the BC SPCA's publicist, Lori Chortyk, regarding her slanderous opinion of Dog Breeder's profiting from pain/puppy mill crackdown article in their Animal Sense Magazine, where I attempted to clarify her remarks that were not true.
I wrote to the BC SPCA President, Mary Lou Troman, on August 09/04 advising her of the problems we as dog breeders are having in the way their Cruelty Officer's are manipulating the PCA Act, and that we were requesting a meeting to discuss these and other issues. We received no response from her or any board member.
I have also written to the Attorney General of BC, the Dept. of Agriculture Minister, The Justice Department, the Federation of Humane Societies, the Senate Reform Committee re: Bill C-22 amendments, and the Lieutenant Governor's Office.
Everyone is talking about reform of the BC SPCA's way of doing business, but no one is acting on the already debated issues.
Our association is now implementing our own "Animal Welfare Standards", to regulate our members and we will be asking the Provincial Government to accept it and possibly adopt it as a New Animal Welfare Act. After all we have spent over a years in research and developing a comprehensive act that will ensure a true animal welfare standard for dog breeder of all types. It will be going to print shortly, and once adopted by or association members it will become our "Code of Practise".
Yours Truly,
Wayne Barron