The B.C. SPCA is currently investigating the revolting cull of as many as 100 sled dogs near Whistler after the Olympics last spring.
Details of the mass slaughter are outlined in a B.C. Workers’ Compensation Board application by the man who followed orders from the tourism company that owned the dogs to kill them.
The SPCA conducts thousands of animal cruelty investigations a year, such as the one involving Trooper, the emaciated golden retriever pup who was dropped off at the Maple Ridge shelter last year. He was subsequently nursed back to health and adopted by a Pitt Meadows family. His original owner pleaded guilty to causing an animal to continue to be in distress, was fined $2,000 and banned from owning animals for 10 years.
However, no all investigations have such happy endings.
The one involving the sled dogs continues. Anything less than a public hanging will only incite more public outrage. At least two social-media-organized protests are planned, one on the North Shore, another in Rome.
Outdoor Adventures admits it asked the employee, Bob Fawcett, to get rid of the dogs, but not in such a manner – shot and stabbed. Fawcett admits that, too, and that he has euthanized dogs before.
The provincial government has appointed a task force to review the cull, as well as the responsibilities and regulations of the dog sledding industry.
Hopefully, it’s money well spent.
The SPCA is legislated to conduct animal cruelty investigations, yet the provincial government continually cuts funding to the organization: gaming grants were reduced by almost half in 2007; then in 2009, its direct grant (used for training special constables to conduct cruelty investigations) was cancelled. That only hampers its ability to conduct cruelty investigations.
The SPCA, a registered charity, receives most of its money from donations and community contracts.
If, in future, sled dogs are taken from a failing tourism operation, what are the chances of some ending up at the SPCA?
More of a commitment is needed from the provincial government, an annual and guaranteed source of funding so cruelty investigations can lead to criminal charges and help prevent a massive slaughter from happening again.
So there can be more happy endings.
– The News