When the story of the starving horses at the Sudweek's ranch near Williams Lake broke last year, I wanted to know the true story (knowing that I was unlikely to get it from the Sun), so I phoned the Williams Lake papers and got the names of some of the Sudweeks' neighbours. I phoned them and they told me that many people had complained for years about the Sudweeks going away every winter and leaving their horses to roam trying to forage on leaves and getting weaker and weaker and the neighbours having to feed them to keep them alive. The neighbours told me how for years the SPCA ignored their complaints and their begging it to do something, and so they finally begged the RCMP to investigate, and the RCMP taking action is why Sudweeks has been charged and found guilty.

I phoned the RCMP too, and confirmed that the SPCA had done nothing for years. I confirmed something else too, which I have known for some time, that the RCMP were angry at the SPCA for refusing to do its job and forcing the police to do it. I've heard this from police over and over.

And I was right not to trust the Sun too. Nick Read's articles allow the reader to think that the SPCA did all the work. This is not the first time that Read has mislead his readers and allowed the SPCA off the hook.

When I am accused of being too extreme about the SPCA or not validating my information professionally, all I can say is...the critics don't know the half of it!