Trucking firm charged in pet dumping
Victoria Times Colonist
Tuesday, December 17, 2002

A local transportation firm is in court on charges it dumped the bodies of 20 euthanized pets in the bush near Lake Cowichan.

B.C. provincial court Judge Judith Kay is expected to decide in January whether Brothers Transportation Ltd. was responsible for leaving the bodies of cats, dogs and rabbits in the bush.

The firm has been charged with introducing waste and pollution into the environment. The charges stem from the fact the pets were euthanized with sodium pentobarbital, a potentially hazardous substance. A hiker discovered the bodies near Skutz Falls on March 16, 1999.

"Some pets were in garbage bags with names attached," said Crown prosecutor John Blackman outside court.

Brothers Transport was contracted to transport carcasses from the Sooke Veterinary Clinic and the Cowichan Valley Animal Shelter to the firm's waste facility on Drinkwater Road in Duncan.

Euthanized pets are normally taken to a landfill, said Blackman.