Six members of V4A drove to Didsbury on May 23, 2007 to witness the trial of Daniel Charles Haskett. Haskett had pleaded “not guilty” to the sadistic and brutal killing of his brother’s dog, Daisy Duke despite the fact that the other accused, young offender Timothy, pleaded “guilty” and has been sentenced.

We were joined by several members of Calgary’s Compassion in Action as well as several individuals from Calgary, Lethbridge and communities surrounding Didsbury. The themes the activists wanted to get across were, for the government to pass Bill C-373 and NOT Bill S-213, currently favoured by the federal Conservative government, and the growing body of knowledge that animal abusers almost always escalate to violence against other people. These messages were repeated over and over again to the multitude of media present.
There were plenty of pickets with these messages but as well, Trudy Sattler from Calgary had made a very realistic display, using a stuffed toy dog, showing the horrible abuse that Daisy Duke suffered (see below).

While we were gathered outside waiting for court to start, Daniel Haskett’s older brother came out for a smoke. When he saw the Trudy’s display he started yelling (somewhat incoherently) asking why we had to show a dog like that, he then charged at Trudy, menacing her and the display (much to the media’s delight). It appears the Haskett boys need some anger management.

When court convened, Haskett immediately changed his plea to “guilty”, which meant that court proceedings only took about an hour. The crown prosecutor read a Statement of Fact which stated that Haskett had “caused willful suffering to an animal”. This statement of the litany of abuse brought many people to tears, while others had to flee the court room. The crown also asked for a psychological assessment of Haskett and, as well, he faces charges of obstructing justice because he lied to police about the events surrounding the killing of Daisy Duke.

The sentencing hearing is scheduled for August 1st. We can now only hope the justice system takes cruelty to animals seriously and hands out the maximum sentence.