The kind couple who took blankets and water to the dog after first phoning the SPCA and being told that there was only one emergency worker that night for the whole of West Vancouver to Hope, only to find the dog frozen solid, immediately phoned the SPCA again to report what they had found. The SPCA then attended the location but did not observe the dog as it had no warrant and the owner did not cooperate.

The next day the SPCA searched the property and found the body of the dog in an outbuilding and removed it. Eileen Drever, SPCA Senior Animal Protection Officer, was put in charge of the case, and told the couple that the body would be taken to the Central Laboratory for Veterinarians in Langley for an autopsy, but not that day as the roads were icy.

BC SPCA CEO Craig Daniell, wrote, "If indeed the dog froze to death, the Society will recommend charges to Crown Counsel".

There are now rumours that the dog was terminally ill, in fact had a "huge" tumour on its neck, and that it died of illness rather than of freezing.

In other words, the dog was in "critical distress" (a criminal offence under the PCA Act that permits the SPCA to seize an animal in order to humanely euthanize it). It was dying outside, alone, in the freezing cold. Either way, the SPCA has the opportunity to recommend charges be laid. Will it pass on this opportunity to set an example to educate other dog-chainers that they may not inflict this cruelty on dogs with impunity? Or would a court case keep this shameful failure in the public eye?

AAS will continue to post all the information on this case it is privy to.