There was a time, after the SPCA released the November 2001 Vogel Report which recommended that the SPCA get out of the animal disposal business before its reputation was destroyed beyond recovery by the brutality and vileness of the business, that the SPCA seemed to be headed in the right direction. The writer of the report, Marguerite Vogel, made all the right recommendations and then she joined the Board of the BC SPCA, possibly to help to steer her recommendations to fruition. The CEO at the time, Douglas Brimacombe, chose (we think rightly) to first restructure the Society so that it operated legally as one entity. It had been operating illegally, possibly from the beginning, with each branch having its own board of directors. That system allowed each branch to make most of its own decisions and Vogel's suggested reform of the BC SPCA could not happen if branch boards dug in their heels and refused to change. But it turned out that the system of branch independence created most of the SPCA's wealth because local people worked hard to raise money for "their" SPCA.

That was elitist because branches in wealthy urban centers got almost 100% of the money. Even that would not be so wrong if all that money meant real animal welfare in those places. But it didn't. The two wealthiest branches, Vancouver and Victoria had some of the most ruthless employees and practices, and in Vancouver, the CEO made $204, 000 plus perks.

Brimacombe not only spent with a free hand (trips to Europe, retreats at posh resorts, lawyers, consultants etc), but he lost money too by not realizing that local people didn't want all the money they raised to go to head office. And so the SPCA fell into several years of multi-million dollar deficits and Brimacombe was "disposed of".

His replacement, Craig Daniell, may or may not like animal control contracts, but he has tried to reverse Brimacombe's dismantling of the SPCA's animal disposing contracting empire. He has not been successful. He lost half the contract in Richmond, the whole contract in Delta (thanks to his astonishing display of rage over the Cheech incident), the Kitimat contract April 1st this year, and the huge Surrey contract is very iffy - so iffy that Daniell has sent a letter to all Surrey residents, urging them to write the Mayor to save the SPCA.

Perhaps Daniell's goal is to get out of the dirty, deadly, animal disposal business eventually. But for now he is acting as though he needs the millions of dollars provided by the contracts and the "shelters" that municipalities provide to the SPCA for almost free and that attract many more millions in donations just by being there. He needs the millions to pay the lawyers to silence AAS for, among other things, pointing out that the SPCA is reneging on the statements made under Brimacombe that it was going to get out of the animal disposal business.