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"Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace." Albert Schweitzer 1875 - 1965

BRIGITTA MACMILLAN - LETTERS TO THE BC SPCA FROM A MAPLE RIDGE SPCA VOLUNTEER

In Maple Ridge the Pet Squad has been a kind of underground, ferrying animals to safety. But it can't go on indefinitely, there have to be changes within the system. For a year and a half I have written letters to SPCA executive imploring them to act. They have not, of course. But what I have as a result is an audit trail that shows their priorities. There's little more I can do within the system besides saving cats, one by one. So I'm now going to work to make the SPCA accountable by appealing not to the SPCA anymore but to the donors, to the public. Your website, Judy, is excellent for that. I'm attaching the text of two letters I sent to the Coquitlam Mayor and Council. Please use them any way you see fit. I hope they help demonstrate to the world what kind of organization the SPCA is. I want to see this organization changed into one that cares about animals first and last. Whatever it takes to do that, I'll do.

November 12, 2000

Dear Mayor Kingsbury and Council:

I am an SPCA volunteer who works on Pet Squad. Over the last year and a half we volunteers have taken SPCA animals to local malls and have adopted out more than 400 pets. This year only one adoptable cat has been euthanized for lack of space at the Maple Ridge shelter, a radical change from the norm in which 60% of adoptable cats are put down. We have proven that there are homes if the effort is made to find them.

My intensive involvement with the SPCA has not been without problems. Enclosed is a letter I wrote last August intending to finally appeal to the donors through the media since the SPCA had proven unresponsive to peoples' concerns. The letter is long but it lists the concerns and my appeals to SPCA executive to rectify the problems in the detail needed to support serious allegations.

I did not send the letter to the media, instead the letter was seen by the Board of Directors and SPCA executive, and I waited again to see if they would take action. Again volunteers were told, regarding complaints about particular staff members who were openly hostile to volunteers and public and indifferent to the animals, that nothing could be done since they are unionized.

I am now forwarding this information to you because of the latest episode, one that shows the SPCA's priorities. When an employee at the Coquitlam shelter spoke to a member of the Board of Directors, who also volunteers at her shelter, about exactly the concerns detailed in the attached letter, she was swiftly disciplined. Her crime (as I understand) was speaking to a member of the Board.

Clearly, then, the SPCA is not concerned when its employees alienate people by, for example, slamming doors in volunteers' faces. They did not consider it actionable that animals have been left without food or water for many hours. They did not find it actionable that staff have euthanized animals while a foster home or an adopter had been available. But they did find it actionable when a staff member insisted on protesting these things. (She had already spoken with her shelter superintendent.)

I continue to volunteer because I can save lives. But many thousands still suffer needlessly. They could be helped but there are not enough volunteers, and the SPCA itself has done nothing concrete to improve conditions in the shelters or actively seek adoptions. I would ask that I remain anonymous, if possible, since this letter would see me swiftly banned from the shelters and I would be unable to save any more lives.

I implore you to do what you can to set up a shelter in which homeless pets are kept with a minimum of stress and suffering and in which a genuine effort is made to find them homes. I no longer have any hope that the BC SPCA will do this unless they are forced to by a growing army of outraged citizens who demand at least this much compassion for the animals.

Sincerely,

Brigitta MacMillan

August 24, 2000

I am writing this because people should know the following if homeless pets are to have any hope. I am an SPCA volunteer as I write this. I work on the Maple Ridge Pet Squad, a mobile animal adoption unit for the Maple Ridge shelter, and over the last year a small group of volunteers have done 44 Pet Squads and adopted out 289 animals to date. I was an SPCA donor and supporter for 25 years before becoming actively involved, and I was always glad to know that the SPCA was there with compassion for the animals.

I began to get a clearer, more accurate picture of what the SPCA is really all about shortly after I began volunteering. I saw things that concerned me. I went to SPCA authorities many times, advising them of the problems, seeking remedy. Nothing was done. The animals were suffering unnecessarily. Though it seemed that I didn't share the SPCA's philosophies I stayed and worked full-time as a volunteer to try to get as many animals out of there as I could. But working this way is like bailing the boat without plugging the hole. The most dedicated volunteers are getting burned out and the animals' need for our help is still as critical as ever.

I've agonized over the last year and a half about how to help these animals best. It now seems that telling people is the best way though it means leaving animals behind who could be saved by Pet Squad. Donors must know what they're donating to, what kind of system they're supporting. The SPCA sends out donor solicitations that paint a picture of a caring, compassionate society. This, in my opinion, is a misrepresentation, and when such PR is used to solicit money I think it amounts to fraud.

What surprised me first as a new volunteer was the blatant, unprovoked hostility one of the three full-time staff members showed towards volunteers. Staff did not welcome volunteers' efforts and I saw no gratitude shown to people who came to donate supplies. On May 17, 1999, after four months of going daily to the Maple Ridge shelter, I wrote a letter to the Sr. Constable there.

"My experiences with the Maple Ridge SPCA have left a bad taste in my mouth and have shaken my faith in the intention of the whole organization to "speak for those who cannot speak for themselves". I am not alone in this. Other volunteers have talked about episodes wherein they have seen potential donors alienated and volunteers discouraged to the point of quitting. I would urge you to follow this up for yourself, to speak to the long-term SPCA volunteers in Maple Ridge and hear their own stories. To all appearances, the SPCA has, after 100 years, finally fossilized into a hidebound bureaucracy that is more concerned with itself than with the animals."

He discussed the letter with me but nothing changed. I began to spend more time in the small animal room rather than going dog-walking. There I saw things that made me heartsick. The cats, living in cages, craved attention and affection; and there were so many of them that healthy, affectionate cats were pulled almost daily for euthanizing. They were put into wire mesh cages so small they couldn't move and they were left in a shuttered back room for hours before their ultimate death.

This is when Pet Squad started. We began taking these animals to local malls to try to find them homes. And we were successful. But the shelter did not make it easy for us. We had to fight obstacles they put before us in order to do it. For one thing, the Maple Ridge Sr. Constable told us we could not do adoptions at the mall, that adopters must drive out to the shelter to do the paperwork. Frankly there are easier ways to get a pet. On August 10, 1999 I wrote to the Director of Volunteer Services about the problems we were having and I said the following at the end of the letter:

"In May, I told Brian Houlihan (director of volunteer services) in a three page letter, drafted with the input of all the other volunteers, that the SPCA staff's concern for the animals seemed to be lacking and I cited details. We discussed it. But nothing seems to have changed. I feel that the animals are simply warehoused until they are destroyed, and any adoptions that occur are serendipity. This may sound harsh, but my frustration is now acute."

Our problems in doing Pet Squad were addressed but the larger concerns were not. The larger concerns were serious. Staff seemed indifferent about the job and the animals:

HEALTH: New animals were not routinely checked for health and animals are adopted out with fleas, ear mites and worms. Cats are not consistently given inoculations; some are and some are not, for no better reason than that staff didn't have time when the cat was received. Cats frequently sit in a cage for hours without food and water because staff don't get around to them. Surely this should be their top priority. Last summer and this summer the shelter ran completely out of canned cat food and rather than buy more, as we had been assured they could do by SPCA Executive after bringing it to their attention, they fed all the cats, from tiny kittens to elderly cats, donated dry food that was stale dated by several months. Pet supply stores have told us they have donations for the SPCA but that no one comes to pick it up.

Upper respiratory infections (URI) - a cat flu - are very common in shelters. In a home a cat can recover fairly quickly. In the stress of shelter life, URI can be serious. It's highly contagious among cats though it cannot affect other animals or humans. Young kittens die from it and their death takes days. The SPCA adheres rigidly to a rule that all strays must be held for a number of days (varies from shelter to shelter) in case an owner comes forward to claim the cat. Only 2% of cats are ever reclaimed by an owner. But nearly every cat will contract URI before the waiting period is over. Yet staff put tiny kittens and terrified older cats into a room full of sick cats knowing that they will contract the illness and knowing some will die from it. Staff have rejected volunteer's suggestions for protecting healthy cats from sick ones by setting up a makeshift isolation ward or by fostering them over the mandatory holding period. Everything is done for the convenience of the bureaucracy at the cost of the animals.

ADOPTIONS: Adoptions are not encouraged. People who have arrived five minutes too early or too late have been sent away. Staff have refused to let people consider adopting a cat with an upper respiratory infection. When kittens in foster care were available for adoption, volunteers heard staff tell people that there were no kittens available. Photos had been provided to staff but were lost. One woman came to adopt a 4-month-old cat. She'd been waiting for it to come up for adoption. But it was loaded into an SPCA vehicle for transport to Petcetera and they refused to take it out for her. The woman, who'd come from Pemberton for this cat, had to follow the vehicle from Maple Ridge to the Coquitlam Petcetera to adopt the cat. One volunteer came in to adopt a cat that had incidentally just been selected for euthanasia. It had contracted URI at the shelter. The head staff member on duty that day was very obviously angry about this interruption but she was eventually persuaded to complete the adoption. The cat recovered and is living happily in his new home.

STRESS: New animals are terrified, which contributes to their vulnerability to illness. Yet staff never take simple measures to alleviate their stress: providing them a cover of some kind to hide behind or trying to reduce the noise level. The cats can hear the dogs barking a few yards away, metal doors are opened and clanged shut many times a day in a casual manner. Some staff pull cats from their cages abruptly when they need to and just drop them back in.

EUTHANASIA: I believe euthanasia is unavoidable because of the vast numbers of unwanted animals. But I don't believe SPCA staff do it with enough compassion. Staff with no veterinary training whatsoever make decisions about which animals will die. They have told us that a cat's death takes about a half hour. We were told there is an excitatory phase during which the cat hallucinates and thrashes about, so the reason they are kept in the small cage is to prevent them hurting themselves. Vets have told us that it is not certain that they feel no pain or fear during this process. Cats appear to be pulled from the comparative comfort of their cages and left in the small wire cages for a very long period before anyone gets around to them. Some months ago a volunteer found a dog slated for euthanasia tied up in the back room along with the bloody corpse of another dog that had been hit by a vehicle. That animal's last hours could not have been pleasant. A couple of weeks ago volunteers saw a dog delivered to the shelter for euthanasia due to terminal illness. That was at 11:00. Upon returning at 3:30, a volunteer found the dog still tied up in the back room waiting to be put down.

BYLAW ENFORCEMENT: The SPCA staff don't appear to make any effort to enforce the laws they are empowered to enforce. Maple Ridge has a spay/neuter bylaw which is flouted with impunity by many, many people. Yet the law breakers are not hard to find. Behind every "free kittens to good home" ad there is probably an unspayed, unregistered cat. I took a couple of these ads to shelter staff from local bulletin boards. In one case I called the phone number myself about two weeks later and was able to ascertain that the SPCA had not contacted them about their unspayed cat despite my reporting it.

A copy of my May 17/99 letter found its way to the SPCA's Board of Directors who asked the executive to investigate. A meeting was set up between five volunteers, the three full-time Maple Ridge employees, and three SCPA executive. This meeting was a grave disappointment and pointed up the key problem with the SPCA. I addressed another letter to the Director of Volunteer Services on November 11, 1999, quoted from below:

"From everything Mr. Nelson said to us that day, I understand him to be an executive in a company that wants to run an efficient business and keep its employees happy. I cannot help but regard this as a tragedy and a travesty; compassion for the animals seems to run a distant third in management's priorities. I'll be specific about how I drew this conclusion.

Several comments by Mr. Nelson indicated his position as regards the staff, the volunteers, and the animals. (1) While we were discussing the difficult job of euthanasia, he said at one point that SPCA employees are paid well and don't want to leave their jobs. This is hardly a diplomatic statement to make to volunteers who are concerned about the animals' welfare. It seems it's acceptable if the incentive for working there is primarily money and that the animals are secondary. (2) When we were talking about someone wanting to call the newspaper about the SPCA, Mr. Nelson said that the shelter has to be "a sanctuary for the employees". He repeated this. Again, this is not a diplomatic statement to make to people whose priority is animal welfare. He appears to feel that the SPCA's mandate is to be a good employer before alleviating animals' suffering. He doesn't seem to feel that SPCA staff need to be accountable to the public/donors for how they deal with the animals. (3) Mr. Nelson concluded the meeting by saying that he'd just spent 2? hours explaining things to five volunteers; imagine if he had to explain things to every volunteer.... Again, this was not a diplomatic statement to make. It demeaned the volunteers and their concerns implying that he has better things to do with his time.

The apparent problems at the SPCA shelter go beyond the public relations problems addressed in my first letter. I have seen too little compassion....Employees of the SPCA, from the front line staff up to management, seem to view the animals as inventory to be warehoused and managed (fed, cleaned, medicated) and disposed of in the most expedient manner."

The response to this letter was an assurance that Mr. Brian Nelson, Director of Operations, is truly an animal lover and to have patience, that anything that needs changing will be changed with time. I was also asked if I would withdraw the copy I had sent the Board of Directors. I agreed and resolved to try to continue working with the SPCA.

But I began documenting incidents that disturbed me: date, time, names and details. In March the local shelter was putting up roadblocks to our efforts to help the animals again. We were arbitrarily not being allowed to foster sick cats to nurse them back to health and find them homes. I wrote to the Director of Volunteer Services yet again giving an account of the most serious incidents. That letter was dated March 13, 2000 and is quoted from below:

"Many people are dissatisfied with the shelter, and the situation could blow up if not addressed. I want to make every effort to deal with the problems within the SPCA first. So I'm asking you to please pursue this so we can see positive change within a reasonable time: staff need to be accountable for maintaining a standard, just as staff are in every other paid job. The standard maintained needs to be visibly a standard where the animals' welfare is the highest priority. No one — not donor, adopter nor volunteer — would comprehend that the organization or employees come before the animals. The motto: ‘speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves' becomes a mockery."

The response to this letter was, again, to have patience, that any needed changes can be made with time. I had described one specific incident wherein I had gone to the Sr. Constable about a problem with the staff and he told me he couldn't baby-sit the staff. In response to that I was told that he is unionized and union members cannot discipline each other — which begs the question of whether staff are accountable to anyone at all for the kind of job they do.

As for the union, we learned of the official response of the SPCA employees to our Pet Squad, which has found homes so many animals: they complained that we are taking work away from them. In fact, our greatest wish is that they would do it.

Of course, nothing is black and white; I know some compassionate people working within the SPCA who are doing everything they can to make things better for the animals. But the direction is not coming down from the top that the animals' welfare is the highest priority.

So, as an SPCA volunteer and an animal lover, I would implore anyone who cares at all about the pet they are about to deliver to the SPCA: have it euthanized quickly and quietly by a vet right now while it can die in the arms of someone it knows, while it's still part of a life that's familiar to it.

If you want to donate money to help the animals, look into the smaller groups in your community. I don't mean people with 60 animals in their house and no adequate sanitation or veterinary care, I mean the small organizations run by unpaid volunteers that spay/neuter, shelter and find homes. This is the true meaning of "shelter" — a safe haven, not a cage in a virus-filled room. For lack of funds, these groups must turn animals away and these animals end up at the SPCA. The majority of them are now truly animals without any hope.

The SPCA's motto, "We speak for those who cannot speak for themselves" is a lie unless the animals would say, "Do what you must to keep me alive until you run out of space". Surely they would say, "Protect my health, give me somewhere to hide when I'm scared, give me a rag to sleep on when it's cold, make sure I have food and water, and try your best to find me a home." This, the SPCA does not do.

Four 4-month-old kittens were brought in on August 4, 2000. There is a spay/neuter bylaw in Maple Ridge and these four were obviously all from the same litter. I asked the staff member if she'd asked the woman if the mom cat was now spayed. The staff member replied, "Oh the mom took off". There was no concern shown to get the fertile mother cat spayed. The four cats were put into the cat room where they became very ill with URI.

This photo was taken at about 3:30 p.m. The cats are fed, cleaned and watered once a day. We have frequently found their food and water bowls empty. Bowls have been found empty at the end of the day as staff were preparing to go home with no further checks on the animals. One volunteer, upon pointing out that some cats had no food or water, was told, "Oh they'll be okay."

There's no way of knowing how long these bowls had been empty. But the question is: should an animal be left without food and water for any length of time?

Brigitta MacMillan

Cats at the Maple Ridge SPCA