Emma Hammil, Branch Manager of the BC SPCA talks about the good work the SPCA does in rescuing and rehoming animals of all types, and engaging with community to ensure good animal care practices.
SPCA is a provincial non-profit which started looking at care of livestock and doing cruelty investigations. In the past 3 months we have had 7 large scale mistreated animal intakes. We have an education program for kids and teens. We have veterinary services including a hospital in Vancouver and a variety of services in shelter. Wildlife rehab is also a big part of our work. We are an intake space for Wild ARC, and have 5-10 intakes a day. We have several shelter branches which provide spay/neuter services, a food bank and an end of life euthanasia for low income families. We do a lot of advocacy for animal rights and welfare, a microchip pet registry and a farm animal program – many are fostered in Saanich and Metchosin. The community outreach work is often with Indigenous communities helping with animal control and care education and support.
Provincially we are a member of Humane Canada and we maintain the highest standard of animal care. We partner with other non-profits and communities, like Our place, Mustard Seed, Victoria Society. We work toward reconciliation and sustainability. In 2021 in Victoria we had 660 animals come into care (down from over 1000 pre-covid) – likely due to our ability to vet adopters more carefully for fit while our doors were closed, and also “the great pandemic adoption”. We homed over 500 animals, responded to 1631 cruelty complaints and took in 70 animals. We assisted 1500 animals with the food bank, together with 7 community partners. We also provided 1005 nights of free emergency boarding (for people fleeing unsafe situations, or are housing displaced) and spayed/neutered 200 animals.
You can get involved by adopting, becoming a shelter volunteer, fostering, becoming a member or a donor. Rewards of volunteering are many. Enjoyment, meaningful impact, relationships, skill building and rewarding duties of all kinds.