Sled Dog Cruelty

Joliet man denies 56 charges in dog shooting case

A Joliet man accused of shooting at two police officers before killing 55 sled dogs was arraigned Thursday in Carbon County District Court on 56 charges.

Peter Clifton Northcutt, 50, appeared before Judge Blair Jones and pleaded not guilty to two felony counts of assault on a peace officer for the incident July 21 at his residence on Joliet-Fromberg Road.

Prosecutors had initially charged Northcutt with a single felony count of aggravated animal cruelty for shooting the dogs, but the charges were amended at his arraignment to include one misdemeanor count of animal cruelty and 53 felony counts of animal cruelty.

One felony charge was inadvertently left off the amended charging document and will likely be added to the case at a later date, a spokeswoman for the Carbon County Attorney's Office said.

Under state law, the first charge of animal cruelty is a misdemeanor and carries a maximum penalty of a $1,000 fine and not more than one year in jail. The second and subsequent charges are felonies and carry a maximum penalty of a $2,500 fine and two years in state custody.

Northcutt pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. Jones increased Northcutt's bond from $100,000 set on an arrest warrant to $200,000.

Northcutt remained in the Yellowstone County jail Thursday following his arraignment.

On the day of the incident, a Carbon County sheriff's deputy was sent to check on Northcutt based on concerns from the man's brother.

The deputy arrived at about 5 p.m. and found Northcutt armed with a shotgun. The deputy backed away several hundred yards from the residence, and a second officer arrived a short time later.

Prosecutors say Northcutt fired a shotgun in the direction of the officers, then was seen walking through several kennels on his property and shooting 55 husky and husky-mix dogs.

When officers approached, they found Northcutt lying unresponsive among the dead dogs.

Northcutt was taken to Billings Clinic, where he remained until July 28. Prosecutors said Northcutt did not suffer injuries from a gunshot wound, but the nature of his medical condition has not been released.

Northcutt was arrested on a warrant when he was released from the hospital.

Sled dogs always at risk | Vancouver Humane Society

Following the revelations in February about the horrific slaughter of 100 sled dogs in Whistler B.C., various defenders of the sled dog industry insisted that it was an “isolated incident’ and that the industry’s reputation should not be tarnished by the actions of one “bad apple.”

While the Whistler massacre may be an extreme example, there are certainly other instances in which dogs have been put in danger because of the failures of sled dog operators.

Most recently, 37 sled dog were left homeless when an operator in Quebec went out of business.  A former employee tried to care for them but ended up living in a tent in the woods with the dogs tied to surrounding trees.  Animal welfare groups are now trying to find homes for the dogs.

In 2009, also in Quebec, nearly 100 malnourished sled dogs , some blind and many pregnant, were seized by the SPCA from a sled dog business in financial difficulty.

In the same year, about 100 starving sled dogs were seized from an operator in Colorado.  Eight dogs were found dead.

Back in B.C., 34 badly-neglected huskies were seized from a sled dog business in Tumbler Ridge in 2008.

Those are just the incidents that get reported.  Who knows what happens at the many sled dog operations in isolated rural locations that are rarely subjected to scrutiny?

These cases support the Vancouver Humane Society’s contention that whenever a business depends on exploiting animals for profit, those animals will be put at risk.  When equipment is obsolete it can be sold or dumped.  When employees are no longer needed they can, at worst, be laid-off.  When animals are surplus to requirements they become commodities with no rights, leaving them vulnerable to methods of disposal that are at the whim of business owners.

That’s why VHS called for a ban on sled dog operations following the Whistler massacre.  The B.C. government rejected that option and instead imposed greater legal penalties for animal cruelty in the province.  It also established a “working group” to produce a new “standard of care” for sled dogs in B.C.  VHS is urging the working group to at least recommend a ban on the tethering of sled dogs for long periods and take other measures to protect their welfare.  VHS’s full submission to the working group can be seen here .

The sled dog working group is due to report its recommendations to the Minister of Agriculture on September 7th.  VHS, and, no doubt, the public, await the report with interest.

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