Man accused in sled dog slaughter gets new court date

A manfacing mass cruelty chargesin the killing of dozens of sled dogs in 2010 has had his next court appearance moved to August.

Robert Fawcett's lawyer, Greg Diamond, says the defence is going through "a lot of evidence" and needs more time to review it.

Fawcett will now next appear Aug. 16.

Fifty-six dogs were dug up in a mass grave near Whistler after information leaked out in January 2011 through a workers compensation claim of post-traumatic stress disorder.

A Bob Fawcett also posted details on a PTSD website, describing how panicked animals were shot or had their throats slit before being dumped into the grave.

The animals had been a tourist draw during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

After the slaughter, the British Columbia government brought innew protections for sled dogs, establishing legal requirements for such things as containing animals, working conditions and euthanasia.

After the information leaked out about the cull, Fawcett and the company that bought his business, Outdoor Adventures, issued a statement in February 2011 that many of the dogs were old and sick and that efforts to have them adopted were unsuccessful.

The company said no instructions were provided to Fawcett on how to kill the dogs, but that he was known to have put down dogs humanely on previous occasions.