Reported to us by a frequent Vancouver SPCA volunteer

Apparently one long-time employee, who past management tried to fire many times for "doing too much for the animals" but couldn't because of the union, is now putting more pressure on owners of yard dogs to provide better conditions by threatening the owners with seizure if necessary. Apparently that employee successfully talked an owner into surrendering a very large breed dog with quite frightening "issues", and then to prevent the SPCA's dog squad from failing the dog with its "scientific test" and killing it, she took the dog to a relative with lots of dog experience, and - surprise! the dog got better and is very happy.

Apparently there are one or two newer employees who are taking their jobs to prevent cruelty more seriously and are leaning more on neglectful dog owners.

It would be nice for a change to be able to go to the SPCA web site and see what its new policy is re yard dogs instead of having to furtively dig for clues. But the SPCA is no more "open, accountable and transparent" about this than it ever was. We have to try to piece together rumour and make sense of it. If we get it wrong (and we don't think we ever do substantially), the SPCA never corrects us. Years of requests for information have gone unanswered.