Yesterday a disturbing story made its way out of British Columbia, Canada, where an adventure travel company has been accused of killing more than 100 sled dogs last April after suffering a poor travel season. The incident first came to light when a former employee with the company made a claim for workman's compensation based on his suffering Post Traumatic Stress after he was ordered to kill 70 dogs. That number was later raised to 100 by the company in question.

According to this story, adventure travel company Outdoor Adventures Whistler is under investigation for animal cruelty following the alleged event, which took place around April 21-23 of last year. The report says that the dogs were shot to death then tossed into a mass grave, the site of which is now being investigated by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Reports seem to indicate that the travel company suffered a poor season last winter with very few travelers electing to take their tours. As a result, they fell on hard times economically, which forced them to make the decision to kill their sled dog teams rather than finding alternate solutions.

Animal lovers should use caution when reading the full story on this incident. Some of the descriptions of what happened is a bit disturbing to say the least. This report underscores a bit of a dark side to some kinds of travel, where animals can be seen as a commodity used for profit, then discarded when they are no longer useful. Obviously not all adventure travel companies, or even dog sled tours, operate like this, but it helps to underscore the need for researching who we choose to travel with.

This is a sad story and if the allegations are found to be true, I hope those involved are held responsible for their actions.

[Photo credit: Zeledi via WikiMedia]

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