My name is Nicole and I am the founder of a non-profit called the Animal Food Bank.  

I'm hoping you will join me in a quest to gain transparency and clarity from the BC SPCA on the following programs they advertise:

BC SPCA Pet Food Bank Programming

• Clarity from Marcie Moriarty on her implying they purchased that food donated to us by the Okanagan BC SPCA branches.
• How much money did they raise in 2020, 2021 and ytd 2022 for the pet food bank program specifically?
• What and where was that money spent?
• Who are their 135 partners across the province they mention in the Castanet story
• How their pet food banks operate - specifically how clients access it, how often they can access it, and how much food is given to each client for each pet for a standard (in the castanet article they reference a weeks worth of food so am looking for clarification on that)

BC SPCA Compassionate/Emergency Boarding

• what is the process to access the compassionate boarding program?
• what are the requirements for the pet owner?
• how long is compassionate boarding - and what happens at the end of the boarding time?  For example, if it is 14 days, what happens if the guardian is not in a position to retrieve their pet?
  what is your standard turnaround time for a compassionate boarding request?
• who has to approve the compassionate boarding request and
• what are the criteria for approval?
• what is the annual program budget? 

Here's my story.

Upon meeting a homeless man and his dog Odin in Dec 2019 in Kelowna, BC I started the Animal Food Bank.  It started with just my husband and I, and has expanded to 100+ volunteers over three provinces, providing over 550,000 meals and completing 10,000 deliveries. I've become a pet food bank expert (which just speaks to the lack of them out there).  

In 2020, we "partnered" up with the BC SPCA Kelowna branch to essentially take over providing the pet food bank services in their region.  We are all volunteers and are non funded (this will become important shortly)

We are a delivery-based model providing pet food and supplies to pets of the homeless and low-income, or those who could use a helping hand due to a hard month, and aim to keep happy loved pets with their guardians.  In a recent poll of our clients (we have 500 in the Okanagan alone), we found that (of those that responded) 66% no longer have to choose between feeding themselves or their pets, because we exist, and 56% didn't have to surrender their pet.  The work we do is impactful and important.  And we do it without funding. 

About a year into working with the BC SPCA on delivering the pet food bank program I was asked to be on a webinar with them celebrating their community partners.  Stupid me agreed - I was still much more naive than I am now.  They paraded me in front of their donors talking about the great work we do.  And...didn't provide us a dime of any of the funding/donations generated from that. 

The branches do provide pet food to us - but it's important to note that pet food is donated by the general public and cannot be used in shelter and so has to be re-donated to organizations like us.  They essentially act as an (unwanted) middle man.

Fast forward to the floods and fires of 2021 in BC. Especially the floods - where major roadways were shut down and the flow of pet food both for us, and our partner pet stores was cut off thus impacting even the community at large that could afford to buy their pet food. I called the BC SPCA begging them for help.  They declined and told us they were only accepting cash donations.  We managed to truck in 30,000 lbs of food ourselves from Alberta, while the Vernon SPCA was asking me to buy them litter for evacuees. Yet the BC SPCA was all over the media raising money all over the place in the name of evacuees.

One of our sister orgs in Alberta sent a truck load of pet food during the floods to the Kamloops BC SPCA - they turned it away and told the driver to donate cash instead.  Our sister pet food bank in Kamloops, Four Paws, took it and they drove around to hotels to meet crying evacuees who had not been given any supplies for their pets, and Four Paws provided them with food. You can read more about this here.

Despite asking for a seat at a table where we could share what we learned, we were denied even a conversation.  

Fast forward to early 2022 and the BC SPCA asked us for more outreach cards for their branch - these are little cards they give to people in need of pet food.  I asked them if they would cover the cost of having them printed. They declined. 

In September of this year we tried getting clarity from their provincial Outreach Specialist, Diane Waters, on what it is exactly that the BC SPCA does for pet food bank programming across the province as it's not clear on their website and we wanted to update our website to provide community resources for folks, and also identify where we should look at operating next.  They were not exactly forthcoming in their responses.  Our volunteers called the branches Diane claimed were offering pet food bank services and were either referred to us, or one of their partner orgs, or did not have the call answered or returned.

And now fast forward to last week - when this article came out and Diane Waters was interviewed -  https://www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna/400190/SPCA-sees-increased-demand-for-pet-food-banks

The article makes it seem like the BC SPCA is providing the services that we are providing.  I immediately emailed them. No response received.  

I wrote a blog post and shared it. https://afbpetclub.org/i-run-a-pet-food-bank-ive-been-quiet-long-enough/

I reached out to all of our media contacts – no one would pick up the story.

On Friday of last week, I resorted to forwarding my email to the BC SPCA from two days prior to the Kelowna MLA. I then got an email back from the Chief Prevention and Enforcement Officer, Marcie Moriarty, ignoring all of my questions and chastising me for not being a good partner.  I immediately replied sticking to my list of questions. No response.

On the weekend, one of our volunteers contacted me about a dog that the Okanagan Humane Society was looking for a temp foster for a dog.  We've done temp fostering before for the Kelowna RCMP in situations where the BC SPCA refused to help.  The dog is owned by a person who needed to receive medical care.  I called OHS and offered to (personally) pay for boarding of the dog (we are short of funds, the fallout of donating campaigns for our services by the BC SPCA) I then found out that the issue was not only that the BC SPCA would not take the dog into it's compassionate boarding program, but that they were the ones who had vaccinated the dog and couldn't/wouldn't provide the vaccination records meaning the dog couldn't be boarded.  Crazy right?  It's so crazy. (OHS has since found a foster)

First thing Monday morning, I emailed the BC SPCA to ask for clarity around their compassionate boarding program.  Another roundabout response received with zero clarity, but with the added piece that they are too busy to answer my questions and that none of what I was asking was any of my business. 

A publicly funded organizations programs are none of my business – me – a member of the public. For programs that we fill their gaps for. That they are in the media claiming to provide.

As we have been posting on our FB page about this, and on my personal page, sharing copies of the emails and responses, I've been getting messages from rescues and organizations all over BC.  When they have questioned the BC SPCA , the BC SPCA (allegedly) threatened to shut them down. I had one rescue refer to them as being like the mafia.  

They also currently have a triple match campaign going to the tune of $135,000 on where they talking about donations for the pet food bank programs, but according to Marcie Moriarty their annual pet food bank budget is only $25,000.  Where does the other 110,000 go?  They had the same donation campaign last December (it's on their FB).

I don't want to get into a war.  The BC SPCA Kelowna Branch, at a branch level, has been very supportive.  As has Penticton. I have no issues with them. All I'm asking for is clarity and transparency, so that we all can know what the BC SPCA can and can't do, and where we can fill in and what we can expect in mutual support.  

I’m asking for an opportunity to know who our 134 sister organizations are in the province so we can share knowledge, resources and experiences.

The BC SPCA’s stance is this none of my business. How is a list of partner organizations providing the same services we are not my business?  And how is their Chief Prevention Officer unable to provide simple answers to simple questions, and then tell me she's too busy to respond to me?

The problem with the non-profit sector is exactly this type of behavior.  Lack of collaboration, promoting competition, lack of transparency and clarity, and the biggest one - working with your partners and not against them. 

This leadership style from the provincial office down seems to be stuck in the dark ages of non profits.  As an operations professional I want to scream!  Stop making excuses for the inefficiencies, acknowledge them, let's fix them, and we will all get so much further together.  The animals depend on it.

The Board of Directors is policy only meaning they have no operational control or oversight on the BC SPCA (which is likely the root of all of these issues)

Please sign and share this petition - our voice is stronger together.