...for years I noticed that the SPCA was the designated charity in many obits. It was mentioned about 5-6 times a week I seem to remember. Then after the Hooper salary revelation in 2001 ($204, 000 plus perks) I noticed that they dropped off. And then they picked up a bit after a year or so. Then they dropped off again after the media realized that the CEOs were switching and changing policy and falling all over themselves contradicting themselves and each other, and getting fired and suing each other. And getting severance payouts ($843,000 in 2002).
And then the obit notices really nose-dived after the Yaffe article and the Cheech incident and they never recovered. Maybe 2-3 times a month now. Today I read an obit that is becoming more familiar - the family asks that donations be made to an animal welfare organization of your choice. At least that is how it seems to me.
The SPCA may have done damage to itself that it won't recover from. I have never wanted the SPCA to disappear - all I've ever said (many, many times) is that I want it to be honest so that I can trust it to do real animal welfare, but more and more people who contact me, to tell me of their years of frustrating and futile experience trying, on boards, by volunteering, and even by working for the SPCA, to make it reform and do real animal welfare, tell me that they don't think it can be saved. They especially hold out no hope for it since the taking over of the CEO position by Craig Daniell, and because of the Board of Directors which is permitting him to run things his way.
Just yesterday, a twenty-year director of the BC SPCA and then of an Interior SPCA, told me (what I have been told countless times before) that there was no way to reform the SPCA from within, that all questioning and dissent was squelched by the "men" and some of the women, who liked to put the words BC SPCA Director on their letterhead, and that she didn't believe that it could be reformed with "that lot that's in charge now". She argued against my stand that the existence of the SPCA is critical because it covers the whole province and no one else does, and no one else will ever have the income to teach humane education, and that no one else has the ability to give the same level of animal welfare to all BC's animals, or co-ordinate municipal bylaws, or get province-wide controls on breeding, or make all pounds improve their standards, or do the huge amount of good that I, and all animal-lovers, want for animals in BC.
She argued that all of us are doing a damned good job of doing real animal welfare right now, and for fifty years have been doing what SPCA donators thought the SPCA was doing: massive spay/neuter, ethical rehoming, real animal welfare, paying huge vet bills, advocating for better protection for animals, and educating.
I no longer have any hope for the decision-makers at the SPCA, the CEO and the Board of Directors. They are telling vets that they can't afford to pay their bills, they are letting animals die of neglect in their facilities, they are paying themselves big salaries, they are hugely management top-heavy, and they have spent perhaps $200,000 on lawyers to silence critics and keep the truth about firings buried and are spending more thousands to try to silence AAS, perhaps the one critic that always wanted the SPCA's survival. No wonder I have given up hope and am just watching the SPCA's self-immolation.
Here is what we are being told on a daily basis:
* constant reports of reductions to animal care;
* unpaid vet bills in the thousands of dollars all over BC even after fund-raisers are held to pay the vets;
* vets so angry about SPCA deceit and animal cruelty that they are speaking out, saying that the SPCA is just seizing animals to line its own pockets with no regard for what is best for the animals;
* animals left to suffer "distress" and even die of "critical distress" in SPCAs (both a crime under the PCA Act);
* promotions of staff members who are willing to carry out anti-animal welfare policies and orders, and of staff members with decades-long reputations as bullies;
* loss of contracting revenue because of too many complaints of animal neglect, of insulting treatment of donors, volunteers, and citizens;
* chaotic inconsistencies in policies between branches and even within branches;
* lies to the media about networking with real animal welfare/rescue organizations, and of killing dogs rather than accepting offers from qualified animal rescue groups to foster and medically treat and rehabilitate;
* refusal to approve experienced and qualified rescue groups with years of experience with their breeds;
* seizures of healthy animals which are then sold, or killed, or made sick by diseased SPCA facilities, or by ignorance of animal health or behaviour;
* seizure, often with the media being brought, and with press releases and photo ops, of animals that are then transported long distances and hidden at secret locations where they are subjected to neglect and ignorance, even though the PCA Act allows the SPCA to leave animals where they are, in better conditions than the SPCA provides, while ensuring on-site improvements are made (but which would not attract any media attention);
* and so many ills that there is not time nor space to list them all.
It is sad to watch the SPCA train hurtling toward a cliff while the conductors lean harder on the throttle.
What do you think? Can or should the SPCA be saved? Please post your opinion and your experiences. Email us privately if you need to protect your identity because of fear of retaliation by the SPCA.