Hi Everybody,

Well, let us start this update with a few pieces of good news:

Our four musketeers have now the okay from the attending veterinarian to be moved sooner than initially thought - we are looking at moving them right after the weekend, which means they will eat their Christmas dinner in their new foster homes, if that's not Merry Christmas to everybody I don't know what is!

For those of you who haven't watched CTV tonight, there was another short coverage of this abuse case and the Minister of Agriculture Stan Hagen, was quoted as saying "they will do anything (including looking at changing the legislature) so that something like this can't happen again". What he is referring to is the fact that right now the BCVMA (BC Veterinary Medical Association) cannot suspend a veterinarian's license until they have completed their own investigation (even if that veterinarian has been charged or already been convicted!). There is no time limit or deadline for them to complete their investigation either, which means that in the meantime someone like Schoyen or Morohn could practice on animals.

Our cousin Judee has done some research on the CVMA (Canadian Veterinary Medical Association) and the BCVMA on this matter, see below her information:

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1. The CVMA is not a regulatory body like the BCVMA. Their functions are completely different;

2. The CVMA does not have a mandate to regulate the conduct of veterinarians - it's a private membership body only;

3. Each province does have a regulatory body appointed for the governance of veterinarians (ours is, obviously BCVMA)

4. When an application is made by a vet in a new province, that new province requires a letter from every jurisdiction that the applying vet had previously been registered to and working in. Until a conviction is obtained, pending, outstanding and on-going charges are not always considered, or even enquired about, in the jurisdiction where the new application is being processed. It is, however, "the practice" of BCVMA to provide details of on-going, pending and outstanding charges to a new jurisdiction that enquires of it. Hopefully, this will take place should they apply for licensing elsewhere.

5. Each member of the BCVMA must keep his address up-to-date on their files.

6. She said an inquiry against Carol Schoyen has been launched but not against Morohn as his license was already suspended.
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We are absolutely convinced that the outpour of responses of animal lovers to this horrible incident will change something! The Langley Times had to close letters to the editor because of the many responses to their initial coverage they received. We CAN change something if there is enough power and this power comes from each and every one of us who stands up for what they believe is right!

Barbara will be back at the shelter tomorrow but from what we heard today the horses are more alert, are starting to have a sparkle in their eyes and are all eating well. Some setbacks are that one of the mares had a very painful abscess in her front foot which had to be lanced, cleaned and bandaged by the veterinarian and our oldtimer ("Misty", the gray pony mare, 32 years old) has to undergo some tooth extractions tomorrow. We are hoping that by the time they can be moved, this will be healed up and they can enjoy some very much deserved TLC over the holidays!

We also want to take this opportunity to send out a huge THANK YOU to all those of you who wrote emails offering to volunteer at the shelter. Please know how much your offers to help these four guys are appreciated - especially at a time when it's so cold and icy outside and everybody is so busy with holiday preparations. The outpour of offers from animal lovers that want to help is just simply heartwarming! I hope I haven't missed one single email to say Thank You!

Hurray to all of us for coming this far!
Steve and Barbara

A few NEW links below FYI
http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/langleytimes/  
http://www.canada.com/langleyadvance/news/story.html?id=e81b3dd7-7329-44af-9da3-520d211d39b0   
http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20081218/bc_horse_vets_officials_081217/20081218/?hub=BritishColumbiaHome