There isn't time to count the number of times that we have said we don't want the SPCA to be destroyed, that we only want it to reform; to stop contracting to dispose of unwanted animals; to do real animal welfare, to control pet population by legislation, not by just killing hundreds of thousands of the sick, the unwanted and the "extras"; to be honest, ethical, open, and accountable; to put the welfare of animals before its own welfare; to never abuse its power over animals; and now, to stop abusing its power over people too.

We began saying in 2001, and we have repeated frequently, that we don't want "No SPCA", we want a "New SPCA". We have been pretty much alone in this goal as other SPCA critics have called for its dismantling. Here again are the reasons we do not want the SPCA to be destroyed:

* BC is lucky to have one agency that covers the whole province, one that does not have competing agencies to work against. Animals in Fort St John deserve the same protection as animals in Vancouver or Victoria.

* One agency can be easily watched by stakeholders in the animal welfare community. Watching many agencies is a task so great that it cannot and will not be done.

* The SPCA has existed for over one hundred years. It is unlikely that any of the other little Societies, including AAS, will be around that long. AAS tattoos and microchips all its rescued animals so that we will know if any of them fall on hard times and end up in a pound or a vet without help (not that this is very likely because we screen so carefully in the first place, but it has happened a few times and it could happen again). And we keep our promise to everyone of them, by taking them back into our homes and rehoming them if they are suitable or keeping them forever if that is what is best for them. But there is a limit to the number of animals that any small group can do that for. Only the SPCA is large enough to do that...if only we can make it do that.

We used to think that the only quarrel we had with the SPCA was over its anti-animal, self-serving animal handling policies. We never suspected that if we made the SPCA enforce the PCA Act, something it had deliberately avoided doing for so long, that the SPCA would just use enforcement powers to abuse more animals and enrich itself further. That was very naive of us as now has been proved.

We had no idea that the SPCA's reaction to being exposed would be to just ramp up the P.R. That was very naive of us too, although it looked for awhile as though honest reform was going to take place, after the SPCA's own Vogel Report was released in November 2001. But the Report's recommendations have largely not been implemented, and in the case of the Report's recommendation that the SPCA start doing cruelty prevention, the recommendation has been used as an opportunity to do further harm to some animals and great harm to people.

The SPCA's abuse of its statutory powers has now been called "illegal" and "unlawful" by a court. AAS has been right. Maybe not in every detail, but in substance, and we will continue to show how the SPCA abuses its power and inflicts cruelty on animals by doing so. We continue to hope for an honest, animal-serving SPCA, but our hopes grow dimmer as new stories of SPCA tempers, killings, abuses, and dishonesty reach us.