Whistler's Joey Houssian reached out to local media on Wednesday (Feb. 2), calling for "patience" as the investigation into last year's alleged mass killing of sled dogs unfolds.
Houssian, owner of Outdoor Adventures Whistler, which is under investigation by the SPCA following a Worksafe B.C. report outlining a horrific scene of slaughter, told The Question that he wanted to reach out to his community. He declined to be interviewed by phone under the advice of lawyers, but responded to some questions by email.
"Like everyone we were shocked and horrified when we learned of the details in the WCB document last week," he wrote on Wednesday.
"Myself and members of our company are part of this community and we know that we will get through this difficult time.
"We would ask that everyone be patient as the details of this incident and investigation emerge."
The Jan. 25 Worksafe B.C. report outlining what's been described as the "execution" of about 100 sled dogs on April 21 and 23, 2010, has received worldwide media attention since Monday (Jan. 31). An investigation led by the SPCA is underway into the account outlined in the report, which was provided by the general manager of a local dogsled tour company.
Also on Wednesday, Premier Gordon Campbell appointed a task force headed up Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Terry Lake to review the circumstances surrounding the alleged slaughter. "We want to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again in our province," Campbell said.
Late Wednesday, Houssian and Bob Fawcett, the former general manager of Howling Dog Tours Whistler Ltd., issued a joint statement in which they agreed to the following:
Fawcett advised Houssian in mid-April 2010 that he was estimating that 50 dogs would be euthanized;
At the same time, Fawcett advised Houssian that the dogs to be euthanized were "too old," "sick" and "not adoptable." The 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 very poor or virtually no quality of life;
Considerable efforts were made to arrange for the dogs to be adopted, both before and after April 2010, but those efforts "were not as successful as hoped," the statement said;
There were no instructions given to Fawcett as to the manner of euthanizing dogs on this occasion. He was known to have "very humanely" euthanized dogs on previous occasions.
Meanwhile, SPCA officials on Wednesday refuted a media report that they were asked to take some of the operation's dogs before the mass killing.
"It's ludicrous it's absolutely false," said SPCA spokesperson Lorie Chortyk.
Houssian said he doesn't know whether the details in the Worksafe B.C. report are factual.
"Our own investigations suggest it may not be, but further investigation is required," he wrote.
Nobody from Outdoor Adventures authorized or signed the report filed with Worksafe B.C., contrary to what's been reported in the media, Houssian said. He repeated the claim that he and other Outdoor Adventures staff members only learned of the shocking allegations last week.
"It was our understanding that a number of older, un-adoptable and sick dogs would need to be euthanized in a humane manner," he wrote.
"We also knew that we had found homes for many other healthy dogs throughout Canada -specifically B.C., Alberta and Ontario."
The report's graphic descriptions of healthy dogs being shot, having their throats slashed and being dumped into a mass grave in a remote area outside Whistler's municipal boundaries have caused shock, outrage and horror in the resort and beyond.
Whistler RCMP have confirmed that several threats have been made by email against "individuals and entities" in association with the reported killings.
"There's been some threats made we're following up on that," said Staff Sgt. Steve LeClair on Tuesday (Feb. 1). "Those threats constitute a criminal offence."
LeClair said none of the parties that have been threatened are currently under police protection. Officers discuss with complainants what precautions they can take if they feel there's a credible threat to their safety, but they have to provide their own precautions, he said.
Information released Wednesday indicates there was "infighting" between Outdoor Adventures operators and the manager who reported killing the dogs.
Chortyk said Outdoor Adventures officials asked to meet with the SPCA and came to Vancouver on May 28, 2010 -about a month after the dogs were killed. They asked for help resolving issues that were the result of infighting within company management.
"There appeared to be a lot of infighting," she said.
Even after the dogs were reportedly killed, the company tried to get rid of more dogs later in the year. The SPCA was asked to take some dogs in July 2010, but it wasn't an urgent request, she said.
The SPCA then agreed to take 40 to 60 dogs in September and arranged for the dogs to be collected on Oct. 14. But the night of Oct. 13, someone from the company called and said they had managed to find homes for the dogs elsewhere and didn't need assistance after all, Chortyk said.
As of this week, there are about 150 dogs remaining at the Outdoor Adventures compound, LeClair said. Police and SPCA investigators have been at the kennel this week and the dogs seem to be in good condition.
"They looked like healthy, athletic dogs," LeClair said.
Police and SPCA have found the mass grave where the dogs are said to be buried, but the location is not being released.
Chortyk said the ground is frozen, but investigators will likely have to dig up the bodies and perform necropsies to determine how the dogs died.
"This is what's being said happened, but we have to be able to prove what happened," she said.
When gruesome details of the mass execution emerged on Monday, Outdoor Adventures Whistler claimed it was a separate company, Howling Dog Tours Whistler, that was behind the inhumane killing of about 100 healthy dogs.
Outdoor Adventures had a financial stake in Howling Dogs for four years, but the general manager referenced in the Worksafe B.C. report had operational control at the time of the reported "cull," a company statement said.
"Everyone's pointing fingers about who was responsible," Chortyk said Monday.
Investigators are trying to determine who owned the dogs at the time of the slaughter and who ordered that they be killed. All those involved in the operation have hired lawyers, she added.
According to the Worksafe B.C. documents, 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 gunshot 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.
"It was just a horrific scene," Chortyk said. "Nothing [that] was done in this scenario was done humanely.
"We're looking at a crime here if these are the facts."
Chortyk said the SPCA has had ongoing concerns about how dogs are kept in dogsledding operations around B.C. and beyond, but she's never seen anything like this.
SPCA officials first found out about the killings on Friday when Vancouver radio station CKNW passed on the Worksafe B.C. report. The documents outline compensation awarded to the employee, who said he suffered post-traumatic stress disorder after carrying out the killings.
Chortyk said charges won't be laid until the investigation is complete -which will probably take a couple of months -but it's "likely" that the manager will "bear some responsibility" for his actions. People have a choice, she said.
- With files from David Burke, The Chief.
