Dear Animal Advocates,

During my tenure on the Board of Directors of the BC SPCA the Board adopted a policy that would prevent the Society's employees from breeding companion animals. Unfortunately, under BC employment law these kinds of policies cannot be enforced retroactively. They would apply only to new employees and to those existing employees who are not breeders. The work has been done on this issue.

I would not support a policy that would restrict breeding to purebred dogs for the very reasons you have outlined. I also believe that some of the nicest companion animals are the ones without a winning pedigree. In BC it would be very difficult to enforce a purebred policy given the large number of surplus animals originating on First Nations Lands. The Cowichan Branch of the SPCA calls their local mongrel - the Cowichan Blend - and they are very nice dogs.

I also support your recommendations on breeding regulation. They are very similar to the policies I recommended to the Advocacy Committee of the BC SPCA in the fall of 2002.

Sincerely,
Rick Sargent