One week prior to Amy & Nick’s sentencing hearing, The Excelsior 4 have sent the BC SPCA a letter, requesting a meeting.
In response to The Excelsior 4’s criticisms, and protests by other activists, the BC SPCA had stated that they would prefer to work together towards common goals. The Excelsior 4 have decided to discuss a way to move forward together, and have arranged to be available at any time on August 25, 2022, one day before Amy & Nick’s sentencing.
Note: A typo in the letter has been corrected from the original. The word “to” has been replaced by the word “of” in the second paragraph.
Update (Aug 25): The BC SPCA refused to have a recorded meeting. The Excelsior 4 offered to find ways to alleviate whatever concerns that the BC SPCA had about recording, but the BC SPCA refused to explain their reasons or discuss the matter.
Dear BC SPCA,
This is Amy Soranno, Nick Schafer, Roy Sasano, and Geoff Regier. We are “The Excelsior 4,” who helped expose animal cruelty at Excelsior Hog Farm in Abbotsford in 2019, and faced criminal charges as a result.
Over the past few years, we and others have been voicing concern over the lack of monitoring, transparency, and enforcement of animal cruelty laws on farms across the province. More specifically, we have been calling for you to recommend animal cruelty charges against Excelsior Hog Farm for their well-documented criminal animal cruelty, which apparently Crown would not allow you to do because of the nature of the footage.
Despite your past media statements, and actions (such as handing Geoff over to the Abbotsford Police), you have stated that you are interested in working together to try to make improvements in the lives of farmed animals.
We have felt that you betrayed your duty to the animals in the Excelsior Hog Farm case. Likewise, the trust between the BC SPCA and us (as well as other activists and the public) has been severely compromised, but the passing of time has given us some new perspectives.
Although we felt that you have been combative with us, we understand that your actions and statements around this issue had to be carefully crafted to protect the valuable work that you do for other animals. In an effort to move forward, and to spend our collective energy helping animals, we would like to take you up on your offer to start working together.
As you are aware, Amy and Nick are scheduled to be sentenced on August 26th. Since they may be facing jail time starting that day, the four of us would like to meet with Craig Daniell, Marcie Moriarty, Shawn Eccles and Lorie Chortyk when Amy and Nick arrive in Vancouver on August 25th. We would like to discuss the dire situation that farmed animals are in, and find a way to cooperate moving forward.
To facilitate full transparency, we would like the entire meeting to be filmed and recorded.
Please respond before August 25th. We can make ourselves available at any time that day. We hope that at least one of the previously mentioned BC SPCA representatives will be present.
Sincerely,
Amy, Nick, Roy, and Geoff