VANCOUVER — A criminal charge has been laid in an animal cruelty case that focused international attention on the practices of the sled-dog industry after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Robert Fawcett, a former general manager with Howling Dog Tours, based in Whistler, B.C., faces one count of causing unnecessary pain and suffering to dozens of sled dogs in April 2010.
The animals had been a tourist draw during the Vancouver Olympics.
Fifty-six dogs were dug up in a mass grave near Whistler after information leaked out in January 2011 through a workers compensation claim of post-traumatic stress disorder.
A Bob Fawcett also posted details on a PTSD website, describing how panicked animals were shot or had their throats slit.
The charges come after a gruesome search and investigation by the RCMP and the Society for Prevention of Cruelty of Animals.
Marcie Moriarty, the general manager of cruelty investigations for the B.C. SPCA, said the case was exceptionally emotional for their investigators who uncovered the remains of 56 dogs in the grave.
“The memories flood back for our constables.”
She said the sheer number of dogs killed and the way they were alleged to have died put the issue in the international spotlight.
“It brought attention, I think, to industry, to working animals, to critical thinking on where tourists spend their dollars and about the importance of setting standards.”
Those standards were recast after the discovery.
The British Columbia government brought in new protections for sled dogs, establishing legal requirements for issues such as containing animals, euthanasia, their health and working conditions.
Moriarty hopes the same standards will be adopted across the country.
“You hate to say that it takes a tragedy like this, but unfortunately, that’s sometimes the reality in cases.”
After the information leaked out about the cull, Fawcett and the company that bought his business Outdoor Adventures, issued a statement that many of the dogs were old, sick or “not adoptable.”
“These dogs live to run and were not able to do so and would have had to be kept in cages with the result that they would have had very poor or virtually no quality of life,” said the statement, issued in February, 2011.
The statement also listed the points that Fawcett and the company agreed about, including that considerable efforts were made for the dogs to be adopted before and after mid-April, 2010.
It said no instructions were provided to the man on how to kill them, but that Fawcett was known to have put down dogs humanely on previous occasions.
Kirby Brown, a spokesperson for Outdoor Adventures, declined to comment, saying it would be inappropriate to talk about the issue now that a charge is before the court.
Outdoor Adventures has said previously it had nothing to do with the decision to cull the dogs and didn’t control day-to-day operations at the time. It has rejected any suggestions that the slaughter was related to the Olympics or a decline in business.
Moriarty said there’s no doubt the cull has changed the lives of sled dogs in Canada because sled-dog operators know they’re being watched.