[October 6, Northern News Services story]
'Beaulieu charged with animal cruelty'

Behchoko RCMP have laid a charge of animal cruelty against Behchoko artist Archie Beaulieu.

Const. Adam MacDonald said Beaulieu will face a single charge rather than 44 separate counts. He is scheduled to appear in court in December.

The maximum punishment for animal cruelty is six months in prison and a fine of $5,000. A court may also prohibit anyone found guilty from owning animals.

The community government of Behchoko recently euthanized 44 of Beaulieu's sled dogs after a veterinarian determined they were being neglected. The dogs were without food, clean water or adequate shelter. Beaulieu and the town had been in a dispute over the dogs' location.

- Brodie Thomas
http://www.nnsl.com/briefs.html

This incident has left me really shaken. The only positive to be taken from this story is that these dogs are no longer around to suffer at the hands of this monster/scumbag (I don't care what his cultural background is). This also reflects poorly on the people in the community and the community government who have known about this for a good long time, and on the people and Government of the Northwest Territories.

Most people in the north, our lousy cowardly media [especially CBC who romanticizes dog mushers and dog racers and does not pursue distasteful stories like this], and the RCMP who willingly performs an invaluable service shooting stray dogs across the north, are also to blame.

The Government of the NWT needs to hear about this from people outside of the territory and there must be a serious inquest into how this happened. Most sled dogs suffer and die outside of the public eye. Here in the Yukon, our government and society promotes dog mushing and racing [with much public money], without giving a damn how the dogs are treated.