Gosh .... Granny was right!

from The Cape Breton SPCA website
The Nova Scotia SPCA & Iams
December 8, 2011
The Nova Scotia SPCA has a long standing sponsorship with Iams. The partnership provides free food to all animals in the care of the SPCA and its network of Branches throughout the province. It was asserted in media reports this week that the SPCA has cut off the former Cape Breton Branch from this food program. The sponsorship agreement with the SPCA is exclusive to SPCA Branches only and individual organizations must apply to the program. When the Cape Breton Branch was dissolved, they were no longer eligible and the SPCA advised Iams of that.
The SPCA has also learned from Iams, that the former Cape Breton Branch ordered in excess of 18,000lbs of free food between July and November of this year. This is more than any single shelter in Canada has ordered through the program and more than all shelters in Ontario ordered combined. The largest shelter in Canada helps 14,000 animals per year, whereas the former Cape Breton Branch (based on information provided) is estimated to help between 1,500 and 2,700 per year. At a recent visit to the facility, several months’ worth of food was noted to be on hand. Iams has advised the Nova Scotia SPCA that they will implementing new auditing procedures to their program due to this discovery.
This information clearly outlines that the former Branch is not at risk of running out of food and in fact based on the food that was ordered, they have put the other branches of the Nova Scotia SPCA at risk because they have ordered more than half of the food available to the SPCA for the entire year.
The Iams program is vital to the Nova Scotia SPCA and their generosity and support has been incredible. For the last two years, they have fed every single animal that has come into the care of the Nova Scotia SPCA and they have helped millions of animals in Canada through their shelter program. It is clear that the former Cape Breton Branch took advantage of this valuable partnership. Thankfully, Iams is still committed to partnering with the Nova Scotia SPCA and for that we are grateful.
Well then!     My dear Dad ... who was born and raised in North Sydney .... always told me that there was never, ever any need to make anyone look bad.   "Never worry kid ... they will generally do a splendid job of it all on their own,  without any help from anyone else"!
Where did he get such wisdom?   Was it from his experience as an investigator and policeman in the RCAF?    From his large family roots where Grampy had to go down in the mines AND run a lobster trapline to keep twelve kids fed and clothed?  
Or perhaps it was simply the proof of what my Granny always said ... 'that the secret is just good genes ... and that some people simply do not have the sense God gave a donut!"
Clearly , when someone started issuing press releases that were snapped up on yesterday's CBC news website and in today's Herald bemoaning the bullying tactic of taking food out of the innocent animals mouths, it did not occur to them that it might open (yet another) Pandora's box about the quantity of food being ordered.
Did they imagine that IAM's shared the same shoddy style of record keeping that was mentioned in the 2011 Shelter Audit?    That a company successful enough to support international adoption programs and provide hundreds of thousands of meals for shelter animals a year would just pass out the food without keeping track?
Gosh, Dad was right!   Without access to the probably very interesting files in the dismissed shelter manager's office, neither IAM's nor the society would have realized that the  CB shelter had been ordering more the largest shelter in Canada ... which feeds more than five times the volume that the (then) CB SPCA shelter does!  
Which of course begs all sorts of interesting questions ... not the least of which is where was the food going if the animals were not being properly fed?  If five years supply was being ordered each year, why was there only a couple of months supply on hand when the audit was done?  
What time is it?   With such interesting fare being offered up freely, all I can say is that clearly Granny was right!
And that is how I still see it today on Thursday, December 8th .... the TWENTY - SECOND day since the dismissed shelter manager and the disbanded board created the renegade shelter.