Distinguish between types of cruelty
TUESDAY MORNING EDITORIAL — People are justifiably outraged over the case of the six dogs who died after being left in a vehicle but let’s keep it in perspective.
A Langley dog walker left the dogs in her truck. When she returned to find they had died from heat stroke, she dumped the bodies and claimed somebody had stolen the dogs from her vehicle. Later, she confessed to what really happened.
How terrible it must be for the owners of those dogs. Our dogs are members of our family, and losing them in such a senseless way is obviously traumatizing. So it’s not a surprise there are calls to put the dog walker in jail for cruelty or criminal neglect, and to strengthen animal-cruelty laws. A petition has more than 1,700 names demanding criminal charges be laid.
There’s nothing that can justify the actions of the woman, and more details are certain to emerge through the judicial process — the B.C. SPCA is handling the investigation — but we need to keep in mind the distinction between intentional and unintentional cruelty.
The situation seems to make clear that this was the latter. We need to allow time for the investigation to determine exactly what happened and why. The B.C. SPCA said Monday it will recommend separate animal-cruelty charges for each of the six dogs under the Criminal Code but didn’t reveal further details of what it’s found out so far.
People who leave dogs in vehicles when it’s hot and put them in danger need to face penalties. The strongest punishment, though, should go to those who intentionally inflict unspeakable cruelties upon animals for their own twisted pleasure.
Put them away. Punish the dog walker, certainly, but if we’re going to have public campaigns let’s go after the real criminals.
In the meantime, anyone with dogs in their care would do well to heed the SPCA’s oft-repeated advice — even with side vents open and water in the vehicle, a dog can die on a hot day. And, if you see a dog in a car on a hot day that might be in trouble, look for help.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
This one is a tough call.She made an extremely bad decision to leave so many dogs in that confined space for whatever time period was involved,but it is hard to imagine what her feelings must have been when she opened that door.I don,t know what punishment is deserved but the experience will be with her for life.
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I don’t believe this was intentional cruelty on her part. She lost her dog, too, in that truck. And I think she panicked and didn’t know what to do. There is no excuse for her actions after that, causing the police to look for thieves and putting the owners through the expense and heartache of looking for their dogs. There were also people trying to extort money from the owners.
I think it snowballed, and then she didn’t know how to deal with the consequences of her actions. She should face some sort of punishment, but our court system is not a justice system, it is a legal system. No matter what happens, those dogs are dead, and those people and society has suffered. Is it enough? I don’t know…
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Good column Mel. I tend to get outraged over things like this, but you are right. If you see an animal in a vehicle at anytime during the summer, make sure to call 911, unless the animal is in obvious distress, do not break the window your self. That could lead to charges against you, leave it for the fire dept.
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