The SPCA is investigating horrific allegations that 100 sled dogs were slaughtered in Whistler last April because of a post-Olympic downturn in tourism.
"It was just a horrific scene," said Lorie Chortyk, a spokesperson for the B.C. SPCA. "Nothing was done in this scenario was done humanely.
"We're looking at a crime here if these are the facts."
A statement from Outdoor Adventures Whistler issued Monday morning (Jan. 31) alleges Howling Dog Tours Whistler was behind the killing of about 100 healthy dogs. Allegations state some dogs were shot while others had their throats slashed before all were piled into a mass grave.
But the Howling Dog Tours company based out of Canmore, Alta. posted its own statement on its website alleging Outdoor Adventures is producing "misinformation."
Howling Dog Tours sold 50 per cent interest in the company to longtime Whistler dogsled tour operator Bob Fawcett in 2004 and has had no interest or control in the business since then, the statement says.
Fawcett's company was operating as Whistler Dogsledding, the Howling Dog statement says, and Whistler Dogsledding has been providing dogs to Outdoor Adventures as a subcontractor for several years.
"Everyone's pointing fingers about who was responsible," said Chortyk.
Investigators are trying to determine who owned the dogs at the time of the slaughter and who ordered the killing.
"We're looking at everyone right now," she said.
The Outdoor Adventures Whistler statement says company officials knew about the "euthanization" of dogs at Howling Dog Tours in April 2010, "but it was our expectation that it was done in a proper, legal and humane manner."
However a Worksafe B.C. order granting an employee compensation for post traumatic stress disorder after killing the dogs indicated something was amiss. The SPCA first found out about the killings on Friday when Vancouver radio station CKNW passed on the Worksafe B.C. report.
The employee who carried out the killings described a scene of chaos and pandemonium.
About 300 dogs were in the area when he started shooting, and the dogs began to panic. He wasn't able to achieve clean kills because of the chaos, so dogs had multiple gun shot wounds and some animals were still alive when they were thrown into the mass grave, she said. Dogs that weren't slated to be killed were accidentally hit with bullets that passed through other animals.
The employee said they had made some attempt to find homes for a couple of the dogs. A vet was asked to euthanize the animals but he refused to do a mass euthanasia of healthy dogs, Chortyk added.
"I've never read anything more disturbing in my life," she said.
Chortyk said charges won't be laid until the investigation is complete, which will probably take a couple of months, but it's "likely" the employee will "bear some responsibility" for his actions.
SPCA investigators know the location of the mass grave and will be talking to every party involved and tracking documents, Chortyk said.
