Wednesday, April 16, 2008
SPCA Squabble
Tonight on Global News they did a short news piece about a letter that was circulated by Janet Chernin today - it's posted in the comments section of the post previous to this one - you can check it out by clicking - here - you can watch the video below. As a happy ending I'm also including a short video of my little dog Jack that I took while I was waiting for the news to begin tonight. In amongst all the melee going on, there is some good that's happened.
One thing that Pam Keddy said in the video was that - "when you're dealing with animals, you're going to have passionate people involved, which you want! Those are the people who are going to be putting their heart and soul into the animals".
It's funny that she says that - because it seems that the only people who are allowed to have passion are the ones who believe in her ideas of passion. She owns a Yahoo group called "Maritime Animal Rescue" which is a wonderful group that has saved hundreds and hundreds of animals over the years - and I was a proud member of it since 2004 - as were a lot of other people - but since the whole Celtic Pet fiasco has come down - we have all been summarily booted out - with no explanation or reason. We are all the exact same people we were in January - except that now we are just not good enough to be part of Pam Keddy's pretty much - dead - group. Oh well.
As for the NS Rescue Crusade - in the comments to this previous post - someone was wanting to get more information about that group - I can't help you there either - I'm not a member of that group - they won't let me be a member as I said in that post - I'm only good for things when things are wanted...
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Joan,
ReplyDeleteI thought the global story was incredibly disappointing and tawdry. So much so I wrote them..and this is what I wrote:
To whom it may concern,
I am not sure which reporter did this story but I just want to say I am very
disappointed in the "take" global took on the interviews with Janet
Chernin and Pamela Keddy regarding the SPCANS tonight.
The concerns of certain members are not a "witch hunt" and as a
member of the SPCA my criticisms are not personal. I don't believe
Janet Chernin's are either. Janet has been a long time activist in
this area and is considered very knowledgeable on the local and
provincial issues because of her involvement over decades in this
area.
What Global should have been having the two ladies comment on is
their differences in the perceived effectiveness of the current Board
of Directors and their supporting comments. This would have been much
more worthwhile reporting instead of trying to provoke a bit
of "sensationalistic" air time.
My theory is where there is smoke there is fire. Can you not see
the smoke piles around the SPCA at this time? Why wouldn't you want
to investigate the "fire"?
This is beyond the concerns over the time it took to rescue the
animals from the Celtic Pets Shelter...or even the ability to gag
members who criticize the board by using an unconventional by-law
(12a in the society's by-laws).
Was there a board presence in the formation of the recent Cat By-Law?
You really think the SPCA would and should have sunk their proverbial
claws into that one. Let alone their position on Bills 203 and S373 -
did they have any? Did they actively pursue avenues to have their
views represented? Where do the stand on "Ban the Breed" legislation
and have they put in place an effective education program to
counteract this.
Why do they not deal with the controversy surrounding the dismissal
of Jessica Hunt? How do they justify the fact that the Province has
had no Chief Provincial Cruelty Officer for the past 18 months? The
Provincial Cruelty Officer now in place as I understand it was
initially hired as a handyman and does not meet the basic
requirements as per the job description.
This is not personal. This is not "tit for tat". This is about a
Board that refuses to be accountable to it's members and the public
in its effectiveness at pursuing and achieving the mandate of the
society. If members cant get answers from the board or are in fear of
questioning and losing their memberships for appearing adversarial
under by-law 12a then what is the members alternative for seeking
answers? This is why this has come to the public domain of the press.
As a member of the society and of course the general public who holds
a stake in this issue, I come to you to do your jobs and get the
facts and answers for us. Not dally in the sordid netherland of
personal issues.
Please take the time to review your network's "take" on this story
and please try to take it much more seriously than a childhood
playground spat for the sake of the animals that could presently be
experiencing undue cruelty and abuse.
respectfully