Premier Gordon Campbell reacted quickly after it became known that 100 sled dogs had been killed near Whistler. He set up a task force, headed by MLA Terry Lake — a veterinarian — to look into the slaughter.
Campbell did not have much choice. The massacre prompted a huge public outcry, in British Columbia and around the world, and has damaged our reputation.
Lake’s task force is to report within 45 days. It will look at regulation of the dog sledding industry and the response of different agencies to the killings, and include recommendations to prevent similar incidents. The Whistler dogs were killed last April, but the information did not become public until late last week.
The manager of the dog-sledding company has already made a successful claim for worker’s compensation, saying that he suffered post-traumatic stress disorder. The SPCA and the RCMP are working on a joint criminal investigation, so charges are possible.
The quick response to the killing of the dogs is in sharp contrast to the government’s reaction to the murders of women from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
Robert Pickton killed dozens of women over two decades. He was arrested in 2002 and convicted in 2007. A public inquiry into the Pickton case and the slow response to the reports of missing women was finally announced in September 2010. Among the reasons offered for the foot-dragging were concerns that the cases were still being investigated. Those didn’t slow Campbell in this case.
Last week, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, the Representative for Children and Youth, released a report that documented the deaths of 21 infants. There is no inquiry, and no task force.
Why do politicians react so quickly when dogs are involved, and drag their feet when the victims are humans?
Because they respond to the anger expressed by the public. If we want to see the answer, in other words, we should look in the mirror.
It is easy to become enraged about the slaughter of 100 dogs, or even the killing of one — a dog such as Bandit, the pit bull beaten to death in a Victoria hotel.
For some reason, however, we get less upset when human lives are lost.
Last Friday, searchers found the body of Tyeshia Jones just south of Duncan. The 18-year-old had been murdered. The next day, pedestrians in downtown Victoria were urged to sign a petition demanding justice — but it was for Bandit, not for Tyeshia.
This week, a 17-year-old girl was found murdered near Burns Lake, a community on the notorious Highway of Tears, where many women, mostly aboriginal, have gone missing. There has been little outcry over her death.
The slaughter of the sled dogs at Whistler was horrific. The backlash has been understandable.
Perhaps we have become hardened, immune to the killings of women and men over the years. Perhaps we can no longer be shocked to learn that a teenaged girl has gone missing, or is found murdered.
But when we fail to react to the killing of human beings, we should not be surprised when the official reaction is biased in favour of the animals.
The government is taking its cue from all of us, and the message we are sending is that humans don’t matter all that much.
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