Groups lobby
for changes
at pound

Marcle Geod
Contributing Writer
THE animat kingdom

of North Vancouver is
not a peaceful place.

emranerin mma roi

ETI eran mem A bares

Long-time ruler, the

Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals, is Qeing a
Vicious attack from a group of
people who also want to. pre:
vent cruelty to animals.
_ dt is a group of interested
individuals and several organi-
zations: Friends of the Pound,
Animal Advocates, Pacific
Animal Foundation, Cuts.

Most of these groups will
tell you they're not too sure
how many people belong to
their organization, They cach
have different: mandates and
different ways of dealing with
the problem of stray, hurt, or eaneetes
suffering animals. , e Poteet

They also have different ee aes
ways of expressing their opin-
ions. One of them reads you a
carefully crafted statement
expressing support for North
Vancouver district to take over the operation of the pound. Wary,
perhaps, of treading into contested territory.

Bue they're all sure of one thing. They want the SPCA out.
“It's taken me a long time te come to this position,” said Wayne

” Adare, president of Friends of the Pound and an ex-SPCA volun-
teer. “T realize that turning people's minds against the SPCA is an
uphill bare.”

Bur it’s one they're willing to wage. That position brought
them together in a room at the Delbrook Community Centre last
week.

: For a mongrel group, they’ve already made significant progress.
Having enlisted the help of Coun. Ernie Crist, perhaps for his

. dogged nature, they have managed to convince the District of
’ North Vancouver to reconsider its annual contract with the SPCA.

A staff report, expected in the fall, will look at the possibility of a

muunicipally run pound.

Adare sees his group helping the district to provide care to the
animals. Others go further. Judy Stone of Animal Advocates, in a
letter to the district, suggested the group would raise funds, orga-
nize volunteers, build facilities, pay vet bills, find fuster homes, set
up an adoption bureau, and advise district staff. As one of the key
issues is building a “no-kill” pound, she would also like to take
every dog not adopted after a certain time period.

‘As the Delbrook meeting progresses, one story leads to anoth-
er, One woman, who said she always wears a camisole so she can
take off her shirt to wrap around an animal, says she has rescued
many injured or stray dogs. When she phones the SPCA, the staff
=. demand to know where the dog is.

She won't tell them. She knows what will happen to the dog.

Another turns to glare at Jeff Lawson, the superintendent of
the North Vancouver SPCA; and the row of volunteers proudly
wearing their shirts and caps. She declares she has changed her will
so that her dogs will never go to their shelter.

“The only reason I do that is because I have seen the abuse and
T haven’t seen any proactive work,” she said. (“Hear, hear! sever-
al people applaud.

Phe theory ue forth is that the SPCA pursues lucrative pound

contracts from municipalities, but does not give the animals the

Jove and attention they deserve. Currently, the facility at 299
Mansfield PI. is jointly funded by the City and District of North

* Vancouver, an arrangement that dates back to the late 1970s.

:-.° Some go further in their accusations, Judy Stone has devoted
years to collecting anecdotal evidence against the organization. She
alleges staff of the SPCA breed animals so they can protect their
jobs, members of the board of directors receive handsome salaries,
adopters are not screened, the adoption fee ($70 for a spayed dog,
$120 for an unspayed dog with a certificate for the operation)
amounts to “selling animals,” and when something doegsn’t sell
they get rid of it. .

“Thope this is making a pattern to you all,” she tells the group.

At the end of the meeting, one woman puts up her hand and

says she wants to say something that will be “very unpopular.”
“ep was very sad thar so much time was spent roasting the

SPCA,” she said. “Before the SPCA nobody gave a rat’s ass about

animals.” .

She is quickly corrected by hecklers who throw out numbers of
animals killed by the organization. .

“Lm talking about the good things that they do,” she said, to
jeers. “Let's not forget that.”

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“f feel 30 pounds heavier today,” said Jeff Lawson on the
phone the next day. “And it’s all lead. .

Given a few minutes to respond at the meeting to the two
hours of SPCA sniping, he had attempted to explain a few things.

‘on

p A

JEFF Lawson, superintendent of the North Vancouver SPCA, cleans one of the cages at the shelter.

Sere yess

EUGENIA Torvik signs a petition for a municipally run
pound in the District of North Vancouver at a meeting
last week. :

He tried to get the name and number of the woman who said she
was told the dog she rescued would be put down. She wouldn’t
give it to him, and although he asked her to phone the next day
she did not.

If part of the prodlem is perception, his shekter gives you
an entirely different first impression than West Vancouver's lush,
comfortable facility, When you're taking the bumpy lane berween
two warehouse businesses in an industrial area, it’s hard to believe
you’re in the right place. Lawson is the first to admit the tiny one-
floor structure, built by the district 30 vears ago, is outdated.

The volunteers, seven of which show up on this day, are trying
to make it better. They are raising funds for a dog bath and have
visions of a free-run area.

Unlike what Judy Stone says they are not allowed to do, they
brush and bathe the dogs on the three days a week they come to
walk. And certainly today, the dogs are not the depressed and lone-
lv animals described by many people at the meeting. Sensing free-
dom, the raetag bunch vaps and darts at their chicken-wire fences.

“T take all the wild ones,” says 70-year-old volunteer coordina-
tor Flo Wallace, as Clara tugs her along on a leash. “We get the odd
nip or bite. | got one yesterday from a dog named Wolf.”

After putting away Boris, who just yanked him sprawling onto
the pavement of the parking lot, Jeff Lawson and Brian Nelson,

the SPCA's director of fickd
operations, sit down tora talk.
More of a spill-out session, as
they have plenty to say.

“Most of these people T didn’t
even recognize.” Lawson com:
plained of the 40-odd group.
“Why don't they come here
and ask me their questions?”
The first thing he clatities is the
floors, described as cold: con-
crete at the meeting. Hor water
Pipes keep them) heated, he
says. Nelson also explains
another criticism: no tovs or
blankets are put in the kennels
because they can easily spread
disease.

Next they tackle the number of
animals put down in 1999; 16
dogs (2.1% of those it handled)
and 34 cats, (6.6%) both which
include old or sick animals that
owners bring in.

“To us, it’s the worst thing to
put an animal down,” said
Lawson, “It’s disturbing that
they (some people at the meet-
ing) would take that one frac-
tion of our job and publicize it
and say that we like doing it.”
Unlike the city-run Vancouver
pound, Nelson says the BC
SPCA will never declare itself
“no-kill.” The philosophy,
popularized by the San
Francisco SPCA and followed
by a number of U.S. shelters, is
that no “adoptable” dog will be put down.

“Just by saying, ‘we don’t kill animals,” hasn't got to the root
of the problem (ofa surplus pet population),” said Nelson. “Tn the
big picture, our goal is to end the killing of healthy adoptable ani-
mals for no. good reason. As an organization, we want to say to
society as a whole, this is your problem, Fix it.”

Since the late 1970s, the problem has greatly improved. Then,
the SPCA had to put down about 50,000 dogs every vear in the
Vancouver region. Now, it doesn't even handle that matiy. Nelson
points to several SPCA initiatives that have helped: a transfer pro-
gram, in which animals from high-kill shelters are brought to oth-
ers that have space for them; the Vancouver low-cost spay and
neuter hospital; and a lobby effort in nearly every municipality that
gives owners of neutered animals cheaper licences.

At the core of the debate, said Nelson, is a philosophical differ- :
ence: the SPCA has a utilitarian outlook when it comes to animals.
Rather than objecting to killing, it objects to cruelty.

“Ifthe choice is between a humane death and an animal being
abused,” he said, “it’s no choice for us.”

But many say the organization is not doing enough to prevent
backyard cruelty, Myriam Brulot, a Vancouver lawyer, has dratted
a legal opinion that addresses an oft-repeated complaint: When I
call the SPCA about animal abuse [ have seen, they do nothing,

Brulot, who once worked as a cruelty inspector for an SPCA
branch in Kamloops, says she started phoning the SPCA last fall
abour two pit bulls in her Vancouver neighbourhood. They were
chained up outside, slept in their own feces, and shez never saw
them get water or exercise. The bylaw officers inspected the dogs
and gave the owner two weeks to put up a shelter. He responded
by putting up a tarp, which blew over in the wind.

According to the province’s Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Act, “an animal is in distress if it is 4) deprived of adequate food,
water or shelter, b) injured, sick, in pain or suffering, or ¢) abused
or neglected.” The SPCA has the power to act when it determines
an animal is “in distress.”

“I got into a big debate with them about what ‘adequate’ shel-
ter means,” she said. “There’s nothing in the act that says you have
to insist on the minimum. Why aren’t you asking the owners to
build a permanent shelter to guarantee protection when it’s rain-
ing and cold?” ;

Nelson, however, says one of the difficulties of enforcing bylaws
is that he cannot give details of an investigation to a concerned |
neighbour, An officer must approach each case with the detach-::
ment of an investigator who must prove his case in court. 4

As an example, he explains a “nasty” case the SPCA recently.
lost in provincial court. After obtaining a seizure warrant, officers
removed 10 starving horses trom a Langley woman. At an expense
of almost $45,000, the SPCA kept the herd for 14 months, The
judge, however, decided the owner was not given enough time to
improve the situation and ordered the animals returned. i

One audience member at last week’s meeting criticized the
SPCA for giving the horses back.

“We know that every move we make is going to be judged by
his honour,” said Nelson. “So we can’t go in there with some sort
of philosophical ideal, because his honour won't allow it.”

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In the heat of the SPCA bashing at the Delbrook mecting,

Barbara Fellnermayr steps in. She became the manager of the

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‘Vancouver pound in 1998, and took the controversial step of

declaring it “no-kill.” She is at the meeting, she says, to make sure
that nobody is wearing blinders. Fellnermayr addresses Wayne
Adare, who stated that the pound he envisions will only be allowed

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