VANCOUVER - The BC SPCA has launched an investigation following a report that a dogsled tour company in Whistler ordered the killing of 100 dogs when bookings slumped after the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games.
Outdoor Adventures at Whistler is the company under investigation. The company is owned by 29-year-old Joey Houssian, son of Intrawest chief executive Joe Houssian.
Vancouver radio station CKNW - citing documents from WorkSafeBC, the agency that monitors compliance with the occupational health and safety regulation in the province - reported an Outdoor Adventures employee was granted compensation after developing post-traumatic stress disorder for allegedly being forced to kill the dogs.
"Shocking doesn't begin to describe what happened to these poor dogs," said an emotional Marcie Moriarty, BC SPCA's manager of animal-cruelty investigations. "Up to 100 dogs. I don't want to use the term euthanize because they were executed. (The man) describes it as execution-style killings."
The radio station reports the dogs were either shot or had their throats slashed before being buried in a mass grave.
``It wasn't always a clean, one-shot kill,'' lawyer Cory Steinberg, who is representing the employee, told CKNW. ``Inevitably, he ended up seeing and having to put the end to some horrific scenes.''
There are provisions in the SPCA act that allow for Criminal Code charges and Moriarty said this case warrants them: "Dogs crawling around in a mass grave; half of one's face blown off - if those actions don't constitute Criminal Code offence, I don't know what does."
Moriarty said she is working with the RCMP and warrants have already been filed to access documents from the Workers' Compensation Board.
Moriarity has said it's often difficult to prosecute Criminal Code cases on animal-cruelty charges.
However, "I'm not sure I've ever seen a case where a person admits shooting off the face of a dog," she said.
The man who admitted to the killings will be the focus of the investigation, but Moriarty added that they'll also look at owners of the company and it will be a comprehensive investigation.
Moriarty said the man says he was more or less ordered to kill the dogs, but that's no excuse and he's culpable.
Officials will be looking for the location of mass grave, Moriarty said, which is believed to be in the Whistler area. The difficulty is that the grave now will be under several feet of snow.
