Documents detail gruesome shooting of 100 dogs in sledding business

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – The 100 dogs were shot dead over two days after an expected post-Olympics boom in dogsledding business at an adventure company didn’t pan out. Most died instantly, but others suffered – like the one that ran away with its “face blown off and an eye hanging out.”

The gruesome event was described in documents awarding compensation to a worker, who claimed he suffered post-traumatic stress disorder from shooting the dogs after bookings dropped sharply for a tour operator following the 2010 Winter Olympics.

“He had to chase her down and finish her off,” Marcie Moriarty, general manager of cruelty investigations for the B.C. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said of the wounded dog that was run down and slain.

Moriarty said the slaughter left her sickened and that it is the worst case she’s ever handled. Both the British Columbia SPCA and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are investigating the slaughter.

“There aren’t words to really describe some of the ways these dogs died,” she said. “We don’t put cows down like that. Slaughterhouses have very strict rules for how supposed culling takes place. This violated every one of them.”

An employee of Outdoor Adventures Whistler was awarded compensation in a ruling by WorkSafe BC, the provincial body that manages workers’ compensation claims.

The WorkSafe documents are confidential, but Moriarty has read them as part of the society’s investigation.

Moriarty said it is likely the individual will be facing charges and not the company.

“Obviously we would like to lay charges as soon as possible,” she said. “We are looking at the particular individual. Whether the company is liable, I don’t know. Morally, yes.”

Tourism Whistler has suspended reservations for the company while the investigation unfolds.

The WorkSafe documents were obtained by radio station CKNW. The station reported the man was attacked at least twice by nearby dogs as the shootings occurred. He was forced to slit the throat of one animal who jumped on top of him.

The name of the man who killed the dogs has not been released, but his lawyer, Cory Steinberg, told CKNW that it was “the worst experience (the man) could ever have imagined.”

The documents reveal bookings for dog sled tours collapsed after the Olympics, and when the company could not find homes for its animals, it ordered the cull. The dogs, which were part of a pack of 300, were shot over two days last April.

“He was essentially told to figure out a way to make (the business) more cost-effective. They just had to have less dogs,” Steinberg said.