From the PAWS "Topaz Creek Dogs" web site: Authorities have known about this matter for a number of years - PAWS has tried unsuccessfully to rally the support of the BCSPCA...

AAS knows of decades of people frustrated by the SPCA's refusal to do a thing about this too common example of animal cruelty. We have all the data and documentation on an even worse situation in Whistler a few years ago. Some of those dogs were blind and deformed. And again, it was not the SPCA that did anything, not after knowing about it for a long time, it was Ted Nebbling, the mayor of Whistler and the Ministry that oversees crown land that busted the Whistler dogs' owner, Helmut Banka, who was actually running a dog-sledding business in Whistler!

It was BC SPCA Director Of Field Operations, John van der Hoeven, and his assistant in the field, Carl Ottosen, who used to prevent any action being taken in cases like this. John van der Hoeven has been relieved of those duties at the BC SPCA and we don't know where Carl Ottosen is. This bodes well for animals and the reform of the BC SPCA.

We are watching the SPCA to see if they are really turning over a new leaf and will conscientiously investigate and seize in cases of gross neglect like this one.