Usually I like to write about subjects that aren't too deep or controversial, kind of just talking on paper to the reader. I'm not particularly interested in writing about political problems, world hunger, or the financial state of the world. Those subjects are better left to experts who take the time to research and give unbiased opinions. It's not to say that deeper subjects don't cross my mind; they do. Often. I just choose not to make them the focus of this column.
However, upon reading about the massacre of the sled dogs in British Columbia, and hearing that the person who did the killings got compensation from our government due to the stress it caused him, I felt I had to speak out. It felt awfully wrong.
According to newspaper reports, Bob Fawcett was asked, by his employer, to cull a portion of the company's sled dogs due to there not being enough work to sustain them. And so Bob, against his better judgement (apparently), over the course of two days proceeded to shoot the dogs, one by one. The huge pile of bodies was then pushed into a mass grave. I didn't see the actual pushing of the bodies but I can't imagine there was any other way to do it other than dig a huge hole and then, with the assistance of a snow plough, push.
A year and a half later, running his own dog sled company, the gunman has come forward to tell his tale. The trauma has become too much and he wants to come clean, he says. So, if we are to believe him (which I personally don't) he was able to leave his past employment with no recriminations. There, then, goes any claim he may have that he was fearful for his life, his family's life or fearful of what harm may come at the hands of his former employer as a result of not shooting the dogs. What has made him come forward? Perhaps, the whole thing was about to blow wide open and he was scrambling to save himself by claiming trauma. Maybe he was simply broke and needed some quick cash.
Let's consider trauma. You have 100 dogs, presumably tethered or jammed into kennels so they can't get away. You get your gun and your many, many bullets and you pick off the first of the dogs. We've all seen the cop shows on television that now show us the vast amounts of blood that come flying out of bodies that have been shot at close range; it must be the same for dogs. So, the shooter shoots the first dog, aims at the second dog and shoots, then the third. I'm thinking that trauma should be setting in by now. Unable to continue, perhaps even vomiting, throwing the gun down in despair at what he had done should be happening. If trauma had set in he should be refusing to continue, to shoot any more. Maybe even contacting authorities so that steps would be taken to perhaps save the dogs. But, no, all of the dogs were killed. Over the course of two days, traumatized Bob killed approximately 100 dogs. One dog got way, his face half blown off and an eye hanging out of his head but Bob managed to get him with a long range rifle. Another dog, not quite dead but wounded, attacked Bob, in an effort to save its own life but Bob, wily Bob, had a knife.
Can we even imagine the noise that was coming from the dogs? Each one of them, unable to get away, frightened beyond belief, frightened to death, awaiting the certain death that was coming?
I'm sorry but I really find it difficult to believe that anyone who could stand in the pools of blood that he no doubt stood in, and shot each and every dog and then slit the throats of some, would have any trauma. And, since it took two days to accomplish the killings, where was the trauma the first night he slept, having killed about 50 dogs with about 50 more to go? Any trauma might be as a result of grasping that he is capable of such a thing.
I'm a dog lover. I own dogs and I rescue those in need. I have looked into the eyes of dogs and seen the trust there. They rely on us for their food, their shelter, their warmth, their well being. They trust their masters. Should not those dogs have been able to trust their master to find an SPCA to take them in? Should not those dogs have been able to trust their master to seek out new homes for them? Should not those dogs have been able to trust their master to do his utmost to find another solution? Since the shooter started his own dog sled business why didn't he start his own business by taking off the hands of his former employer the unwanted dogs? Presumably that was an option?
But no, he stood in what can only be unimaginable amounts of blood, listening to the baying and moaning and agony of the dogs who were already wounded or awaiting their executions, the stench of death around him and the boom, boom, boom of the gun as he shot and shot and shot.
Trauma? Traumatized? A year and a half later. Hard to believe. Hard to fathom. Hard to think about the dogs now in his care. And a huge thumbs down to WorkSafe BC who awarded him compensation as reward for his killings.
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