This is sad and downright DISGUSTING!
Outdoor Adventures, a Canadian tourist spot which offers winter excursions like snowmobiling, snowshoeing, horseback riding, and dog sledding, is under investigation for animal cruelty after an employee reported executing 100 of the companies 300 sled dogs because of a slow winter season.
Despicable!
The employee successfully filed a WorkSafeBC claim for post-traumatic stress last April outlining the “execution-style” mass cull using firearms, which by the end had left him “covered in blood”.
The man’s claim says he was ordered by his employer to euthanize the dogs since his responsibilities “included herd control”.
While all previous culls were done with the support and approval of a veterinarian, the man stated in his claim:
“A veterinarian was contacted, but refused to euthanize healthy animals. Attempts were made to adopt out the dogs with only limited success.”
Ugh! Such a blatant case of animal cruelty! There had to be a shelter somewhere that could have taken in these unwanted dogs.
Marcie Moriarty, head of the BC SPCA cruelty investigations division, said of the employee who filed the claim:
“I’ve no doubt he has suffered post traumatic stress but there’s a thing called choice. I absolutely would not have done this and he could have said no. This is a Criminal Code offence … I don’t feel sorry for this guy for one minute.”
The BC SPCA animal cruelty investigators plan to execute a search warrant to try to obtain further information about the culling and even unearth the mass grave to examine the dogs’ remains.
Moriarty says she is glad a light is finally being shed on this industry because:
“There is a problem with the sled dog industry in general. People see these 20 sled dogs, an idyllic setting with snow in the background and think how great. But what they don’t see is the 200 dogs tethered and sleeping out back, chained to a barrel.”
So sad! We hope the SPCA can dish out some justice and this brings attention to other sled dog travesties being committed everywhere else in the world.
Thoughts???
[Image via AP Images.]