VPD says dog possibly thrown from building in ‘troubling’ incident

Vancouver police are looking into a disturbing incident after a dog was found dead in an alley off East Hastings on Friday afternoon.

The VPD says officers were called to the area of Main and Hastings streets, near the Molson Hotel, around 2 p.m. When they arrived, they found the dog in the lane beside the hotel.

Sgt. Steve Addison tells CityNews, at this point, investigators think the animal may have been deliberately thrown out of an apartment window.

“It’s troubling for everybody. It’s troubling for our first responders, troubling for witnesses, for people who were living in the building, and, certainly, this is going to be disturbing to anybody who hears about it in the news. We take it seriously,” he said Monday.

Addison says police have reviewed video footage and spoken to witnesses.

He adds the SPCA has been notified and is also investigating the incident.

“We’ve identified people that we believe were in the room at the time and our investigation is ongoing. The focus of our investigation at this point is to determine how the dog fell, and whether or not the dog was thrown. We certainly believe that it’s entirely possible that the dog was thrown out of the window and we’re in the process of … collecting additional evidence that might help us fully understand everything that happened,” Addison said.

“We’ve got more work to do.”

The breed of the dog is not clear

No arrests have been made in connection with the incident.