When Tanya Fournier-Veilleux joined Expedition Mi-Loup in 2020 as a co-partner, she said she was “really shocked to see what it was like.”
The 28-year-old young woman had just responded on Facebook to an offer from Antoine Simard to take over the management of the kennel.
At the beginning of 2020, the company on the Île d'Orléans was accused for the first time of mistreating its sled dogs. The owners, Antoine Simard and Élisabeth Leclerc, wanted to distance themselves from the day-to-day management of the place.
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In 2020, images were posted on social media showing an employee attacking dogs.
Photo: Facebook/Melina-Anne Shaffer
Since the beginning of the week, they have been on trial in the Quebec court on animal cruelty charges, as has one of their former employees, Edouard Parent.
Tanya Fournier-Veilleux, who had already worked in four kennels, joined the company without knowing her background.
She said she was surprised from the start when she discovered there was no dedicated veterinarian at the kennel.
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Tanya Fournier-Veilleux waits outside the courtroom to testify.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Yannick Bergeron
The costs she later incurred for the treatment of the dogs led to disputes with Antoine Simard, she assures.
He randomly split an invoice into multiple payments so that Simard, who was auditing the accounts, couldn't notice.
Fox food
Simard had also introduced him to the Meat Run, which consisted of visiting the butchers of the Île d'Orléans to collect their waste.
So the dogs could be fed skewers covered in BBQ sauce, but Madame Fournier-Veilleux refused.
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Antoine Simard is tried at the Quebec courthouse.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Yannick Bergeron
Since she had decided to buy food to feed the pack, Simard would have given her the number of a contact who offered fox food. According to the witness, Antoine Simard would have justified this as the cheapest option.
The woman added that the defendant allegedly warned her not to give it to the puppies as it would drive them crazy.
She learned what happened before her arrival during the broadcast of a documentary in February 2022.
The young woman says that she was very disturbed by the gas chamber where dogs were killed.
She then decided to leave the company.
She did this shortly after, following an adoption campaign that aimed to give away all the dogs in the kennel.
The trial continues on Friday with the testimony of Mathieu Lambert, another former Mi-Loup employee.