Emma Paulsen, B.C. dog walker, sparks intense animal cruelty debate
Columnist Adrian MacNair says he's still being harassed after expressing sympathy for jailed animal abuser
As a columnist, Adrian MacNair clearly enjoys attacking society's sacred cows. Sacred dogs, on the other hand, he has learned not to question.
The Surrey Now reporter says he's still reeling from a firestorm of reaction to a piece expressing sympathy for Emma Paulsen, a B.C. dog walker sentenced to six months in jail for the deaths of six dogs.
"Nine out of 10 people were telling me I'm a loser, I should be fired, how can I raise children?" says MacNair.
"I'm kind of angry about it. I wouldn't say I love animals, because I love my children. But I like animals very much, and to be branded as some kind of dog hater, it sickens me."
'Some we love, some we hate, some we eat'
A series of horrific animal cruelty cases have dominated B.C. headlines in recent years: the dogs collectively known as the Brookswood 6, dead of heatstroke in Paulsen's locked van; Captain, a German shepherd killed by his mentally ill owner; and this week, Ryder, a black lab allegedly stabbed and abused by a mentally ill woman.
"You do have a lot of cases," says Hal Herzog, author of Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It's So Hard to Think Straight About Animals.
A professor of psychology at Western Carolina University, Herzog says he's fascinated by Paulsen and the reaction to MacNair.
Herzog says the vitriol aimed at abusers and anyone showing them empathy has risen in the past 20 years. He points to demographics and a pet industry that "humanizes" animals.
"People are having fewer kids and they're typically having kids later," he said. "These are folks that are most likely to form deep attachments to animals, and they're more likely to actually consider animals as people."
MacNair says that's an attitude he has attempted to question, though he admits he may have failed in execution, writing that "dogs are easily replaced" and "don't make a difference in this world one way or another."
But, he says, he also called on people to care more for each other: "If they could focus their energies into human issues, such as homelessness or child poverty or aboriginal poverty, I feel like we'd all be a lot better off."
Further talk of violence 'disturbing'
Judge David St. Pierre eyed a packed courtroom in 2013 as he sentenced Brian Whitlock to 60 days in jail for beating his dog Captain to death.
The case galvanized public sentiment against Whitlock, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and has since been charged in the death of his mother.
The judge said he understood the connection between humans and animals, but noted that death threats just caused Whitlock's condition to deteriorate.
"We sit in these courts every day and we deal with the most terrible tragedies that have befallen people and children, and yet these courtrooms are largely empty every day of anybody who even cares anything about those matters," St. Pierre said.
"It is quite disturbing to me, and it should be to everybody, that this tragedy would precipitate further acts and talks of violence."
'Such a vulnerable group'
As director of legal advocacy for Animal Justice Canada, Camille Labchuk says animal abuse cases should garner headlines.
Sentences for animal cruelty have increased in proportion to public outrage, she says. But the law still views pets as property, which may add to ambiguity around the seriousness of abuse and our attitudes to animal victims.
"People understand animals are such a vulnerable group. They don't have adequate legal protection and the few laws that do protect them aren't enforced as strongly as they need to be," Labchuk says.
"When people see these vulnerable creatures being abused, their first instinct is that we have to protect them, and it's unacceptable to make excuses and be an apologist."
Crime and non-emotional sentencing?
Colleen Christensen posted measured support for MacNair on Facebook after a long stream of comments, including a call for the columnist to be locked in a pickup to "see just what it would be like to die in that manner."
The Nanaimo woman says she thought MacNair was simply saying emotion should not be part of criminal sentencing. A passionate animal lover, Christensen agrees.
And she knows the pain of losing a pet; a neighbour killed her dog Aussie in 2013, after the animal slipped through a hole in a fence and killed a goat.
Christensen says she was devastated, but has put her energy into changing the law instead of hating her neighbour. She advises people to do the same with Paulsen, if for nothing else, to honour her victims.
"These dogs give their whole lives to make us happy," she says. "The last thing they would want is to be where they can no longer comfort us and see us suffering."
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