This is news from a couple weeks ago. Nonetheless, worth writing about and bringing to more people. Also, there is a petition going around on this and if you haven’t signed it yet, I imagine you would like to. And one more important way to help ensure this kind of thing doesn’t happen (or happens less) is by donating to your local SPCA, as the new “One Dollar for One Dog Challenge” Facebook page advocates.

Basically, the story is, British Columbia saw a slump in tourism at Outdoor Adventures Whistler following the 2010 Winter Olympics, so an employee there was ordered to kill 100 sled dogs that were no longer needed by the company.

“The dogs were repeatedly shot and had their throats slashed before being dumped into a mass grave,” Huffington Post reports. “The employee describes one dog whose ‘eye was hanging off, and it was still running around.’ Another dog was dumped into the grave while still alive, and the Outdoor Adventures Whistler employee watched as the dog tried to climb out.”

What’s Going On with the Case Now
It is unclear if this is going to result in a criminal case. It is legal to shoot an animal if it dies instantly,.. but that seems to not be the case here. BC SPCA is reportedly going to dig up the mass graves to see if they can find clear evidence of this. (Note, however, that this was the news two weeks ago and I can’t find an update on this.)

The employee has been granted compensation for post-traumatic stress from murdering the animals over the course of two days, however, the question that comes to my mind is: who would murder 100 dogs if given that task at work?

The man has reportedly suffered from “panic attacks, nightmares, sleep disturbances, anger, irritability and depressed mood since culling approximately 100 dogs” and was a “dog-lover.”

Why Were the Dogs Killed? What Was the BC SPCA’s Involvement?
This employee and Outdoor Adventures Whistler have submitted a public statement that the dogs were “too old” or “sick” and “not adoptable” and so had to be killed. Of course….

The man who killed the dogs said that he had asked for help finding people to adopt the company’s dogs from the BC SPCA on a couple of occasions and was “rebuffed” but “Marcie Moriarty, head of the BC SPCA’s animal-cruelty division, says she’s ‘livid’ over the suggestion the BC SPCA turned the dogs away,” the Montreal Gazette reports.

Apparently, some workers there recalled talking to the man and telling him that the dogs wouldn’t make good pets and weren’t adoptable but had no idea he was going to slaughter them in the way done.

BC SPCA clearly states on its website that it “was not approached to help rehome any of these animals…. there was no request for assistance in rehoming animals and details of the April 21st and 23rd slaughter were not disclosed to the SPCA.”

How Often Does This Kind of Thing Happen?

I don’t have statistics, but this surely happens all too often to circus animals, retired racehorses, retired racing dogs, and plenty of other animals used for human entertainment.

Also, if you want to step outside your comfort zone a little bit, this happens to a staggering number of chickens, pigs, cows, and other animals everyday. If you aren’t aware, pigs are about as intelligent as dogs.

SOURCE: GO Media - Written by Zachary Shahan - Photo Credit: Tambako the Jaguar

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