Members of the Okanagan Forest Task Force made a gruesome discovery this weekend while out in the back country off of Postill Lake Road in Ellison.
Organizer Kane Blake says he driving along the dirt road when he peered over a ditch and found a dead dog had been thrown into the bush.
鈥淚t was big dog, I thought it was a wolf at first, but I walked closer and realized quick it was not and was a family pet at some point, maybe a big German Shepherd,鈥� Blake explained.
An avid back country enthusiast for many years Blake says he has never come across something like this.
鈥淢ost people bury their pets on their property, or take them to the vet, so this was a shock,鈥� said Blake, a dog-owner and lover.
It鈥檚 unclear how the dog died.
鈥淚 am not sure how it got here, someone could have run it over and got scared and dumped it, or someone might have accidentally shot it thinking it was a wolf. It was a big animal.鈥�
However the dog was not the only thing dumped off Postill Lake Road. OFTF members discovered garbage littered for nearly 14 kilometres along the road.
鈥淭here is a burnt out car, a six-to-eight person hot tub that is cut in half, a giant TV with projector, there is probably enough garbage to fill two 40 yard bins,鈥� explained Blake. 鈥淚t will take a good handful of volunteers and half-a-day to clean this up.鈥�
OFTF will work with the Regional District and local volunteers to clean up the mess; however it will be some time before they can tackle the mess.
鈥淲e have another cleanup this weekend, and we also have to wait for the snow to melt. There is still a lot more garbage under the snow that will need to be cleaned up.鈥�
Just last October, volunteers with OFTF attended this same area of Postill Lake to tackle illegal dump sites and now, not six months later, it鈥檚 as if they had never even been there as there appears to be even more garbage.
Blake is in contact with Conservation Offices in 琉璃神社 to find out what can be done about the dead dog and to help find who is responsible for the illegal dumping on Postill Lake Road.
