5 years ago (2008): An Invermere man euthanized his pet, which led to a police investigation. The man was subsequently charged with animal cruelty. “There is a story here; it’s a malicious accusation. It’s not the story you’re thinking it is — that I’m a monster,” the accused told The Echo.The complaint was made by a neighbour who wasn’t happy about the method in which the animal was put down. The accused was told by a vet to shoot his cat in the head after it developed blindness. Instead, to keep the head intact for rabies testing, the man “basically broke its neck” at 2 a.m. on January 10th. He videotaped the kill. “It died quickly, but not as quickly as I would have liked,” he said. Test results proved the cat had no rabies.
10 years ago (2003): SARS began making headlines. The newly discovered Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome was spreading like wildfire; concerns were rampant because neither a cure nor the long-term effects were known. One patient under the care of Interior Health was showing symptoms of SARS and hospital staff “appropriately followed up.” As of March 30th, there were 98 known cases in five Canadian provinces; 81 of the patients were from Ontario.
20 years ago (1993): An out-of-town 40-year-old hunter was seen firing a rifle at a mule deer on Forest Landing Road. Witnesses alerted the conservation officer who made his way quickly to the scene and laid three charges on the man. Two of the charges stuck and the man was ordered to pay $900 and forgo hunting for two years.
35 years ago (1978): Declining grizzly bear populations prompted changes for hunters. Beginning that season, areas with low populations were off limits, the season was shortened from April 1st to June 5th, hunters were allowed one grizzly kill per five years, and targeted bears had to be two years old instead of one.
40 years ago (1973): Advice was given to parents who suspected their children were using drugs: “Make yourself as knowledgable about drugs as you can, commence a ‘low key’ dialogue to determine how and why the child reached a decision to use drugs. Heavy involvement in drugs may well be symptomatic of other problems perhaps more urgent. Don’t ignore them or think of them as irrelevant. If your child is using drugs, some of his friends will be too. Thus there is room for you, along with other parents, to try and offer the whole group something better than drugs.”
50 years ago (1963): A mild winter and early spring broke an environmental record. Lake Windermere had been free of ice as of March 18th, the earliest date on record. The previous date was 30 years ago, when the lake went “out” on March 21st 1931. Since 1904, the average day for Lake Windermere to “go out” was April 15th.