From: Lana Simon
To: The Mayor and Council,
The City of North Vancouver
Dear Mayor Sharp and North Vancouver City Councillors:
Once again, it is the small, private, volunteer animal rescue society that is responding to a cry for help from a North Vancouver City resident (voter ) !
After calling the North Vancouver SPCA for help and being told that they don't have any cat traps and will NOT come out to help a feral mother cat and 3 tiny kittens in a townhouse complex, it is Pacific Animal Foundation (PAF) that is responding to the call for assistance.
Mrs. (resident)of W. 15th Street, North Vancouver telephoned the North Vancouver SPCA on Monday, Sept. 9th, for help. She talked to a Peter Kempf and was told that the SPCA has no cat trap and couldn't assist her in any way with the cats. Ironic isn't it, that the BCSPCA CEO, Douglas Brimacombe makes $ 132,000 annually (with a salary review expected shortly) but the SPCA can't afford a $ 75.00 cat trap ?
Mrs. (resident) told PAF that Peter Kempf did not offer any suggestions for helping or want to be bothered with her call. BUT, he did give her Pacific Animal Foundation's number and suggested she call us ! PAF has two traps, purchased long ago with the few dollars earned at a rummage sale. How can you truly help the cats if you don't have the basic tools ? We have been using the traps for 10 years now and have caught thousands of feral (and tame) cats. We loan them out all over North Vancouver to individuals (AT NO CHARGE AND NO DEPOSIT) and haven't lost one yet !
More than that, almost all PAF trapping efforts involve one or more of our volunteers - hands-on at various times of the day and night. Notice I said "volunteer" - we're not paid. It’s not our job and yet we make the time and take the effort. An SPCA employee is PAID to help animals and yet the SPCA doesn't own a cat trap or come out to trap and says they can't do anything about the ferals (wild) cats and kittens that are helpless and reproducing constantly. Even setting aside the humane aspect, does this make any business sense ? Year after year, the SPCA is allowing an ever increasing number of homeless cats to flood our community and is not doing anything about it. The rescue groups have stepped in to the breach and started feral cat programs. Why not the SPCA ?
By all means, please call Mrs. (resident) to verify this information. Meanwhile, PAF will be helping her while the paid employees of the North Vancouver SPCA will not. Mrs. Casacove tried to speak with you on the telephone yesterday but was not put through by your receptionist.
There IS a lot the SPCA could do - see the link (below) to the San Francisco SPCA that has implemented a program for feral cats (in 1993 - almost 10 years ago). Our SPCA constantly says they are “researching the problem” but don't have the money to initiate such a program but they do seem to pay their CEO very well. And, of course, it's the animals that suffer and NO, rounding up and killing all ferals is not any kind of solution.
This situation experienced by Mrs. (resident) is not an isolated incident. Our volunteers have been responding to desperate callers in North Vancouver for 10 years because the SPCA won't help them - and we’re just one group.
The Mayor and Councillors of the District of North Vancouver finally understood the situation and, when presented with hard evidence, decided to end their contract with the SPCA because the job wasn't being done properly. Despite all the pleas of the private rescue groups and individuals on the North Shore, you and the North Vancouver City Councillors voted to retain the contract with the SPCA.
The SPCA is NOT doing its job, the animals are suffering, and your constituents are not being well served. After a year, there is no animal shelter in the City and the SPCA employees are just passing along calls from City residents to the private groups ! How can the SPCA justify constantly proclaiming to Council that ONLY the SPCA can properly handle the animal calls but, when confronted with requests such as Mrs. (resident), willingly pass along the rescue groups' numbers with no offer of spay/neuter or medical expense assistance to help the groups ?
The District, on the other hand, has upgraded its shelter, provided a community cat room AND CAT GARDEN and a separate room for rabbits and other small animals. The District Shelter now owns a cat trap and WILL come out to trap a cat, if at all possible, and the District shelter staff are working with the rescue groups ! A willing partnership that is putting the animals first !
More and more City residents (voters !) are seeing the difference in the District’s animal care policies and the lack in their own area. I urge you to end the City's contract with the SPCA and join forces with the District in a combined North Shore effort to provide City residents (voters) with a responsive and capable department regarding animal welfare concerns in the City.
Mayor Sharp, I would like to ask you why you (and the City Councillors) continue to retain the SPCA contract with the City when the SPCA is abdicating ITS responsibilities and passing calls on to small, private, rescue groups that have no funds ? I would like to include your response in my forthcoming letter to the North Shore News.
Lana Simon, President
Pacific Animal Foundation
North Vancouver City Homeowner (and voter)
Link to SF SPCA - Feral Cat Assistance Program -
http://www.sfspca.org/feral/index.shtml
c.c.District of North Vancouver Mayor and Councillors
BC SPCA Head Office
Animal Advocates Society
District Animal Welfare Shelter