How multi-cultural is the SPCA?

When working with such a diversity of cultures and languages in British Columbia most successful businesses have worked for inclusion of staff and/or volunteers who are multilingual and culturally sensitive.

With the recent apprehension of Jiji, the Box Dog, it has been stated that the SPCA had difficulty communicating with Jiji's owners as English was not their first language.

If reports on the news and in the papers are correct, Jiji's owners were visited three times with requests to change Jiji's living conditions and the owners did not comply. It is obvious that the SPCA knew there was a severe language barrier in place and I cannot help but wonder how many additional days or weeks Jiji suffered because the SPCA did not attend to this situation with a staff member, translator or volunteer who spoke the owners first language?

How open is the SPCA to hiring staff or actively looking for volunteers who have an additional language to English? Has the SPCA partnered with multi-cultural non-profit organizations such as SUCCESS or Mosaic to ensure that translators are available for this type of situation, a situation that is far beyond acceptable?

In the "melting pot" called BC how much effort is made by the SPCA to educate, inform and reach communities that require education in a language other than English?

It is long overdue that the SPCA take advantage of the resources available to them, so that our companion pets need not suffer the same fate as Jiji.

Gail Moerkerken