Families and their dogs stood on the rocky shore of Powell Lake in the twilight hours of Sunday night, August 19, lit candles and paid their respects to a dog they had never met.
Two weeks ago a group of young people found the dog while they were swimming in the lake. The tawny un-neutered pit bull had drowned and was half-submerged.
“It took four of them to pull the dog out,” said Audrey Hill, volunteer branch manager at Powell River SPCA. “It’s pretty obvious that it was a deliberate drowning; not that the dog had fallen off the boat and the boat couldn’t find the dog.”
The dog had two cinderblocks attached to its collar.
Although authorized to perform a necropsy, a veterinarian was unable to because of the condition of the waterlogged remains. Hill thinks the dog was alive when it went into the lake and was drowned, although there is no conclusive proof.
“Most people, if they’re going to do something illegal, would shoot the dog and dump it in the bush,” Hill said. “So why this person had to do what he did, I don’t know. It was a horrible way to die.”
The 20 adults, three children and half a dozen dogs gathered near the logging barge on Block Bay, where the dog had been found. They observed a moment of silence then asked Brandy Craig, the local SPCA animal cruelty investigator, what was being done to bring the person responsible to justice.
Craig told the group that BC SPCA Cruelty Investigation Department works with very limited resources, adding that Powell River shares an SPCA constable with Vancouver Island. In BC there are 23 constables who formally investigate and enforce the provincial Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. BC SPCA relies on public donations to support its efforts.
“Unfortunately our constable is having difficulty coming over here because there are so many cases of neglect and puppy mills on the island,” Hill told the group.
Craig is currently working with the RCMP to investigate leads they have to the identity of the dog’s owner, but she hopes community pressure will push the person to come forward.
“It really all depends on if there is any kind of eyewitness that is willing to step up,” Craig said. “It’s hard to get a conviction on animal cruelty. The best we can hope for is that everyone knows who did this.”
“A confession would be the best,” added Hill. She has offered $500 of her own money as reward for eyewitness testimony in court that leads to a conviction.
Anyone with information about this incident or any other incident that involves animal cruelty can contact Hill at 604.483.3506.
