Blogging About Critters Since 2007

Monday, January 31, 2011

Mysterious Sled Dog Deaths

Bad allegations connected to Whistler. Full article at the BBC News...
Canadian police are investigating the reported killing of 100 huskies which had been used to pull tourist sleds in the ski resort of Whistler.

An animal rights group claims the dogs were killed inhumanely by an outdoor adventure company and thrown into a mass grave.

Local media reports say business slumped after the 2010 Winter Olympics and the dogs were no longer needed.

The company could not be reached for comment.

"We've opened a police file and assigned an investigator," Police Sergeant Steve LeClair told AFP.
'Throats slit'

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in British Columbia, alleged that an Outdoor Adventures employee was told to cull the dogs in April last year.

1 comment:

Andrew Heaton said...

Ana,

From what the article says, it does sound as if the dogs were killed on purpose and in a pretty poor way.

If this is indeed the case, then this is inexcusable.

But this brings up an interesting question: what should be done with animals whose use in business operations has become redundant? Would it have been possible for the dogs to have been trained as domestic pets or farm animals? Or else, would it be possible to simply set them free into the wild?

I appreciate that it would be difficult for dogs which have been trained as sled dogs all their lives to be transplanted into a different environment where they would have to adapt to conditions and a role to which they were not familiar. But there has to be a better way than killing them, doesn't there?

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