Early Edition,
CBC Radio,
Vancouver

You have inadvertently done a disservice to dogs in BC by not including any dissenting opinions in your story this morning on the SPCA's new program to decide which animals it euthanizes (CAMP). You only interviewed the SPCA's Nadine Gourkow. Your decision to run this story may have been based on the story in the Sunday edition of the Vancouver Courier which did give dissenting opinions and gave the names of the holders of those opinions, Animal Advocates among them.

AAS is easy to find; we are in the phone book and our web site is easy to find also. I have given my home phone number to Early Edition many times.

The media ought not to be so dazzled by SPCA's glitzy new "science-based" excuse for all the killing that it did in the past secretly, but can no longer hide, since last February when it was exposed on television for the mass killing of unsold dogs at the Vancouver SPCA. The SPCA's immediate attempt at damage control was to declare a moratorium on killing. This came near to causing a mutiny in the branches, and in reaction to that ill-conceived fiasco, it hurriedly put together this media-friendly "assessment tool" that now "scientifically" justifies the large number of cats and dogs that the SPCA kills for space, by blaming the victims for not passing the test. The tests are carried out in the horrifying conditions (even to humans) of cement cells and abandonment. Parts of the SPCA's "science-based" tests are disputed by other experts.

AAS has examples of how the SPCA is using its new tool to dispose of dogs that should have been put into a foster home or a training program instead of killed.

And there is reason to believe that Gourkow, who has almost no experience with dogs, was designated by the SPCA to order the branches to kill certain dogs, even though the employees (with much more dog experience) felt the dog was recoverable.

There is much more to this story that should have been made available to your listeners.

Judy Stone
President, Animal Advocates Society of BC
www.animaladvocates.com
www.animaladvocates.com/cgi/messageboard.pl

Please write Early Edition too and tell them that you expect them to present "balanced" stories, not p.r. pieces for the SPCA. Help AAS to hold the SPCA accountable, because if we all don't do it, no one is, certainly not the media.

earlyedv@cbc.ca
Be SURE to cc your letter to AAS at office@animaladvocates.com