About the BC SPCA

The BC SPCA is a non-profit organization funded primarily by public donations.

Our mission is to prevent cruelty and to promote the welfare of animals through a wide range of services, including cruelty investigations, emergency rescue and treatment, sheltering and adoption of homeless and abused animals, humane education, advocacy, farm animal welfare, spay/neuter programs, and wildlife rescue and rehabilitation.

The BC SPCA provides emergency medical care and sheltering for 37,000 animals each year through its 41 facilities and operations across B.C. (30 animal shelters, three adoption centres, two spay/neuter clinics in Prince George and Kamloops, four volunteer-run branches, an animal hospital in Vancouver and Wild ARC, the Society's wildlife rehabilitation centre in Metchosin). The Society also conducts more than 4,600 cruelty investigations and provides a wide-range of advocacy and education programs for domestic, farm and wild animals through its Provincial Office in Vancouver.  

Stats at a Glance

The Society has 416 staff members (full-time, part-time and auxiliary) and 4,000 volunteers throughout the province. Our staff includes 25 full-time Special Provincial Constables, who are trained and authorized to investigate complaints of animal cruelty and neglect. Eight additional constables work in branches full-time and assist with investigations in their communities.

In 2009 the BC SPCA:

• Operated 31 animal shelters, two education and adoption centres, one store-front adoption facility, three volunteer-run branches without facilities and Wild ARC, a wildlife rehabilitation centre in Metchosin on Vancouver Island;

• Opened the Kamloops Spay/Neuter Clinic in April 2009 to help pet guardians access affordable spay/neuter services for their pets and to help ensure that all animals leaving the Kamloops SPCA Branch are sterilized prior to adoption;

• Rescued 36,059 injured, homeless, neglected and abused animals (companion, farm and wild);

• Reunited 5,374 lost animals (including 4,139 dogs, 1,080 cats and 40 rabbits) with their anxious families;

• Transported 5,571 animals between shelters to maximize adoption and adopted 833 animals through our satellite adoption centres;

• Found new, loving families for 20,236 homeless animals (5,679 dogs, 12,148 cats, 497 rabbits, 1,812 (small animals & other);

• Helped 1,855 injured and orphaned wild animals (1,367 birds, 468 mammals and two reptiles) at Wild ARC, the BC SPCA's wildlife rehabilitation centre in Metchosin on Vancouver Island. An additional 403 wild animals (402 birds, one reptile) were also received in BC SPCA shelters;

• Conducted 5,870 new cruelty investigations;

• Removed 1,332 animals from dangerous or neglectful situations through cruelty investigations and rescued an additional 3,443 injured animals;

• Executed 133 warrants under the Criminal Code of Canada, the PCA Act and the Offense Act;

• Submitted 62 charges of animal cruelty and neglect to Crown Counsel;

• Offered humane education programs for thousands of children, youth and adults in B.C.;

• Provided more than $2 million for a wide range of programs to reduce pet overpopulation, including a free and low-cost spay/neuter services provided by the BC SPCA Vancouver animal hospital and the BC SPCA spay/neuter clinic in Prince George and Kamloops and through low-cost spay/neuter funds administered by SPCA branches across the province. The society achieved it's goal of 100% pre-adoption spay/neuter of animals in all of its branches in 2009.

• Helped thousands of injured homeless animals through the BC SPCA animal hospital in Vancouver. The hospital offer full-service medical care, including low-cost spay/neuter and extensive charitable work for low-income pet guardians and local animal rescue groups;