The Canadian press is reporting that the man who killed around 100 sled dogs in what’s being called a “slaughter” and a “massacre” twice reached out to the British Columbia SPCA for help with the dogs, and was turned down both times.
From the Vanouver Sun:
The Vancouver Sun has learned the 38-year-old employee of Outdoor Adventures who killed 100 sled dogs in Whistler approached the BC SPCA on two separate occasions asking for its help in finding adoptive homes for some of the company’s dogs.
Both times he was rebuffed.
Officials at the animal protection agency said they didn’t realize the dogs would be brutally slaughtered. But they said they told the man the dogs would not make good pets and were not adoptable.
How did the folks at the British Columbia SPCA make this determination? Senior animal protection officer Eileen Drever had this to say, quoted in Canada’s National Post:
“(The employee) didn’t advise me he was going to kill any dogs. He was looking to find homes. I spoke to an animal behaviourist who is also a vet and she spoke with an expert in the (United) States who said they weren’t adoptable,” said Ms. Drever.
And it gets even worse. The Sun reports that after the killings, Fawcett contacted the SPCA again, writing:
“I understood from Joey (the owner of the sled dog tour company) that there were to be some dogs going to you for adoption? Is that indeed happening? Or should I just show up with a truck full so they can get off the chain and get some attention, exercise, stop fighting, etc….I am happy to bring some down to stop cruelty they are going through here.
“This is me as a bystander (I am off due to injury to both arms). I am the only one who has made any effort to move dogs. We still have almost 60 dogs too many, and a new litter of pups to be given away. Can you please give me a call so I know something can be done. It’s breaking my heart.”
Five days later, Drever replied to him, saying, “I just informed Joey that after consulting with an animal behaviourist/veterinarian we have reached the decision these dogs are not adoptable. I will however conduct an inspection of the facility.”
The Sun states she did not investigate the facility at that time.
The SPCA’s response? Again, from the same Sun article:
BC SPCA head of animal cruelty Marcie Moriarty said the SPCA would have acted had it known the dogs were going to be slaughtered.
But she added it’s not the SPCA’s responsibility “to take on their issues … to suddenly make a phone call and say, ‘I have 100 dogs that need placing;’ that’s not an answer to their business operation’s issues,” said Moriarty.
“If we had any indication they would have been executed we absolutely would have done something.” But she added it’s likely they would have still been euthanized.
Why might that be? Because apparently, like pit bulls, sled dogs aren’t individuals who deserve and should receive individual evaluation. Moriarty continued:
“What people have to realize because of the way they’re raised they’re not highly adoptable animals. Maybe a few could have been adopted but these dogs are on tethers 90 per cent of their lives. Is it fair [Outdoor Adventures] profits — get thousands of dollars from tourists and not have a retirement plan? Is it fair they would dump them on the SPCA and then we’d have the pain of that euthanization?”
It was crap in Wilkes County, N.C., when 145 dogs “rescued” from a fighting ring were killed by animal control authorities without evaluation — even nursing puppies. It was crap when it was said about the Vick dogs. And it’s crap here.
Moriarty did refute one element of the Sun‘s account, saying that Fawcett didn’t reach out to them until after the killings, about other dogs. But whether he contacted them before or after the initial slaughter doesn’t change the story all that much. They were asked to help these dogs, either the 100 who were killed, or the others. They didn’t.
How’s that for “prevention of cruelty to animals”?
Photo: A dog from the sled dog company that owned the dogs who were killed and employed Fawcett. Photo by Claudia Kwan/Vancouver Sun.
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