Easter fun downtown: The sun shone for the annual Easter egg hunt Scene & Heard A36
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2013
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‘Return to the Dark Ages of animal welfare’ Emotional fallout from SPCA decision to leave Campbell River KRISTEN DOUGLAS CAMPBELL RIVER MIRROR
PAUL RUDAN/THE MIRROR
Brush clearing gets out of hand A firefighter douses a brush fire on Quinsam Road Monday afternoon. Firefighters were called to the scene to extinguish a prescribed burn that got out of control. See story on page A5.
Heartbroken SPCA volunteers say the city’s decision to award animal control services to another company has forced the community back into the dark ages. Sheila Keats and her husband Gary volunteered as dog walkers for the SPCA for more than nine years, and she’s devastated the city doesn’t see animal welfare as a priority. “An essential service to our community is no more,” Keats says. “It’s up there with police, ambulance and fire as far as I’m concerned. Animal welfare is up there. “It’s a sad day for the SPCA and a return to the dark ages of animal welfare, it is a step backwards. It’s hard to find any joy in all of this, it’s hard to make peace with this. It’s a shock and it’s hard to accept.” The SPCA notified the community via a letter on its website on Wednesday afternoon that it would be ceasing its operations in Campbell River after 30 years
of providing protection for animals. That decision is already having a far-reaching effect on the community. The SPCA had been partnering with the Campbell River and District Association for Community Living. Through the Hand-to-Paw buddy program, special needs clients formed strong bonds with the shelter dogs which helped them to open up and taught them how to brush, walk, and interact with dogs. Nicky Good, a volunteer dog walker with the SPCA for three years, said it’s a blow to the clients to lose that program. “That Hand-to-Paw – it made their day,” Good says. “And now all of that is gone.” Also gone is the SPCA’s Bite Free program, taught by Judy Hagen and her dog Maggi, which demonstrated to daycare and school children the proper way to approach a dog and avoid being bit by an aggressive dog. Then there’s the SPCA’s spay and neuter program which helped control the community’s feral cat Continued on A2
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