A friend of mine was at the Prince George SPCA AGM a few months ago. She told me that during the question period part of the meeting someone stood up and asked CEO Craig Daniell and President Mary Lou Troman about the lawsuit against Animal Advocates Society. She asked why it was necessary and who was paying for it. The answer from Daniell was that he felt the SPCA was being defamed by AAS, and that this must be stopped. Troman actually admitted that "some" of the material on the AAS website was true, but that some was lies, and that the AAS website was damaging to the Society. There was no denial that donor's money meant for animals was paying for the suit.

I have felt from the beginning that the lawsuit brought upon myself and Judy Stone, and a handful of others whom the SPCA has chosen to identify as Animal Advocates Society, has been a personal attack by Mr. Daniell, and endorsed by his new President Mary Lou Troman. Certainly, Mr. Daniell was not successful in persuading his past President, Mr. Rick Sargent, to sue AAS. My friend in Prince George said that both Daniell and Troman became quite agitated and uncomfortable when asked about the lawsuit. This doesn't surprise me.

Craig Daniell and Mary Lou Troman have NEVER emailed us about our website. They have NEVER told us that anything on it was a lie. We have asked for verification and input from the SPCA time and again before posting news on our website. We have consistently been ignored. And now we are being sued for defamation. The reams of unanswered emails to the SPCA all go into my Defense Documents file number one out of eighteen, titled "Correspondance with SPCA". It's one of the fattest files of the eighteen so far. Almost all of it is our requests to the SPCA for clarification and input, and almost none of it is SPCA replies. So we are ignored, then sued, for the third time. And the SPCA won't say who is paying its lawyers. No wonder Daniell and Troman were uncomfortable in Prince George when that question was posed.

And for the record, AAS is not taking any money from its own animal welfare work to pay lawyers. Judy Stone is paying the lawyers, not AAS. Judy Stone is standing up for all of us, who are her friends, and is using the equity in her home to ensure that we are not choked to ruin by the BC SPCA.

Until the BCSPCA does true animal welfare, there will be critics. I'd like to see the SPCA spend its money on animals. Then it wouldn't have to spend it on lawyers to silence its critics.