Animal Advocates Watchdog

Criminal investigation may hamper B.C. sled dog death inquiry

Criminal investigation may hamper B.C. sled dog death inquiry


By Kim Pemberton, Vancouver SunMarch 2, 2011

The man who killed 100 sled dogs last year while working for a Whistler tour company will not be interviewed by the members of a provincial inquiry because of an ongoing criminal investigation into the slaughter.

The inquiry, which is at its halfway point, was supposed to review the circumstances related to the massive dog cull, but the criminal investigation means certain details cannot be examined.

“We had some challenges, so it [the final report] won’t be as comprehensive as we hoped it would be,” said Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Terry Lake, head of the inquiry. “The first challenge is — because there is an ongoing investigation by the RCMP and the SPCA — we can’t look at specific details of the incident.”

But Lake, who is also a veterinarian, said the task force has been able to tackle Premier Gordon Campbell’s other objective, which is to look into the industry to ensure regulations and standards will protect sled dogs in the future.

Lake said he is confident the task force will meet its 45-day deadline on March 25.

“Initially, the premier wanted to look at the specific incident and when we asked the Attorney-General if there were any obstacles he said ‘yes’. We’re not doing a judicial process. It’s a public process so we can’t do anything to impair their [criminal] investigation or the carriage of justice.”

Lake said the members of the inquiry won’t be interviewing Bob Fawcett, the dog sled manager who claimed he was forced to slaughter 100 sled dogs owned by Outdoor Adventures in April, 2010; nor will they interview company owner Joey Houssian. However, Lake said he understands Outdoor Adventures has asked whether it can make a submission to the task force.

“[Houssian] is welcome to make a submission to explain how his operations work in a general sense but to date we have not received anything from him,” said Lake.

Campbell announced the sled dog task force Jan. 26.

Lake said the findings so far indicate that what happened in Whistler was “certainly an aberration in terms of the practice in the sled dog industry.

“That’s not to say animals aren’t euthanized, but they are euthanized by vets,” he said, adding they have spoken with three sled dog operators in B.C., Alberta and Yukon.

He said the task force has also been in contact with veterinarians who have worked with sled dogs, and Mush With Pride, an industry organization that has voluntary standards of care for sled dogs and which Fawcett was a board member of at the time of the cull. (Fawcett was ousted from the board when news of the sled dog slaughter sparked worldwide condemnation.)

“We’re not saying every sled dog operation is perfect but the culling [in Whistler] is not the standard and certainly the way the dogs were euthanized is not normal for the industry.”

In a workers’ compensation report, Fawcett described a botched euthanization of sled dogs where chained dogs were shot in front of each other over two days. Some had their throats slit after he ran out of ammunition.

Lake said the task force also wanted to examine WorkSafeBC’s involvement and “whether there’s a duty to report a case they are hearing to relevant authorities.”

But Lake said again, because of the ongoing criminal investigation, they won’t be able to interview the case worker at WorkSafeBC and can only “talk generally about WorkSafeBC.”

After the workers’ compensation report — which awarded Fawcett compensation for suffering post-traumatic stress disorder — was leaked to the media, the provincial agency was criticized publicly for not informing authorities about the incident.

kpemberton@vancouversun.com

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Criminal+investigation+hamper+sled+death+inquiry/4374435/story.html

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