It's clear where this mayor's priorities are not

[FrankGSterleJr]

B.C. SPCA animal cruelty investigations spike by 1,000 in 2014


An intense upswing in animal cruelty investigations was reported last year as the B.C. SPCA broke records with nearly 9,000 reported incidents.
The animal organization received almost exactly 1,000 more cruelty complaints in 2014 than in 2013, according to Marcie Moriarty, B.C. SPCA chief prevention and enforcement officer.
“We received 8,849 cruelty complaints through our centralized call centre in 2014,” she said.
In 2014, the B.C. SPCA executed 160 search warrants — up from 102 in 2013 — and recommended 53 charges of animal cruelty, almost double that what was recommended the year before, Moriarty said.
“But I don’t think it’s indicative of the fact there’s an increase in animal cruelty,” she said.
The B.C. SPCA launched its centralized animal cruelty call centre in 2013, and it gained traction last year, which allowed for a better way to track calls, Moriarty said.
“I think more importantly, the spike is indicative of more and more people who are aware of animal welfare issues when taking action,” she said.
“What we are seeing, I think, is where we’ve been concentrating a lot of work on and that is raising the profile within the legal system.
“Animal cruelty cases are a unique subset of law.”
The B.C. SPCA works in partnership with the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies, which provides more resources for crown counsels across the country.
And 2015 is also shaping up to be busy, Moriarty said.
“For the first 29 days of the year it’s definitely been active,” she said. “I think we’ll have another busy year, which is double sided. We try to work ourselves out of business, but I don’t think it’ll happen.”


NOTE:
Meanwhile, the mayor of the province’s city with the largest concentration of suffering unwanted homeless cats and kittens, refused to fund a desperately needed emergency spay and neuter initiative. Perhaps, however, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that she turned down such humane funding: She publicized a photo of herself with her two beloved huge ‘pet’ Rottweilers, one on either side of her, a sight that strongly suggested that some sort of physical security issues may be at work.