Dear Editor:
After having attended last night's city council meeting on the sales of animals in Burnaby pet stores, I find myself this morning still reeling as to what I was witness to last night.
I am astounded that council would allow John Crocock, a Richmond resident, to publicly stand up, on the record and slander reputable, hard-working rescue groups and not make a single move to correct him. Crocock stated that rescues are unregulated and that anyone can hang up a shingle and call themselves a rescue.
Contrary to this is the fact that reputable rescue groups are highly regulated as they are registered societies through the province of B.C., are registered charitable societies regulated by the charities directorate of the Canadian Revenue Agency and are policed by the B.C. SPCA, just as any other group or citizen within BC.
He also then took it a step further stating that no one knows where the donations go - insinuating that charities are stealing people's money. He said self-promoting rescue groups use sad cases of animal neglect to bring in money. He also added that he, as a computer specialist, knows that rescue groups spend money to hire computer technicians to pad the number of likes on our websites and social media pages.
Both he and Katherine Kinman, owner of King Ed Pet Centre, missed the fact that rescue groups wouldn't exist if people would stop selling
unaltered animals and breeding more and more to
sell. Kinman said that her customers need a place to bring all the babies they are having.
A responsible citizen would take steps to stop this cycle, not encourage it by paying for litter after litter to sell and profit off of. Rescue groups would be more than happy to shut down.
Unfortunately this goes against the pet store owners' logic that we want all the animals for ourselves so that we can have neverending bottle drives to pay for vet bills, food and bedding.
Their signs (incidentally misspelling the word rescue) encouraging people to not donate to rescues goes to show their lack of understanding on the whole issue.
They also included the word "bullying," which is sad, as it completely disrespects the true meaning of the word and those who are truly affected by bullying. Stooping to personal attacks rather than providing substantiated facts is a tactic used by those who have no argument or leg to stand on.
As a lifelong resident of Burnaby, I am saddened, as I expected more from the city.
Lisa Hutcheon, Burnaby, Small Animal Rescue Society of B.C. co-founder
