Parents complain after kids witness animal grilled and eaten

CHRISTOPHER LAKE, Sask. - A counsellor at a northern Saskatchewan Bible camp is feeling the heat for killing and roasting a squirrel over a campfire.

The bushy-tailed rodent was injured recently after the counsellor at Camp Kadesh, 48 kilometres northwest of Prince Albert, threw a stick in its direction.

Camp director Curtis Anderson said the counsellor destroyed the injured animal and wanted to prove that nothing should go to waste by skinning and roasting it.

"It was an accidental, foolish mistake," said Anderson. "He wasn't trying to make a spectacle. He was trying to make the best of a bad situation."

A few counsellors ate some of the squirrel. None of the 120 child campers had any and most didn't appear concerned, Anderson said.

"It seemed to me that the campers saw that it happened, whatever their opinion was, they just kind of went away from it and said let's move on," he said. "There wasn't the sense that it was too much of an issue."

But two parents were outraged. They called Anderson, demanding the counsellor be fired.

"I told them that it was a mistake and that it shouldn't have happened," said the camp director.

After consulting with directors at other Bible camps, the RCMP, and the SPCA, Anderson determined that it would be "an overreaction to fire the counsellor."

"No one was overly pleased with the situation, but at the same time the RCMP said nothing illegal had happened," he noted.

The SPCA agreed that eating the squirrel may be "gross," but is not illegal. Pat Slater, manager of the Prince Albert SPCA, said she's more concerned with the counsellor's actions in hurting the animal.

"The first thing that he did wrong was he threw a stick at the squirrel and hit it," said Slater.

"If you're not intending to injure it or kill it, you wouldn't be throwing a stick. To do this in front of children, to roast it in front of children, I think that he's sending completely the wrong message. Just because it's not illegal doesn't mean it's right."

The camp plans to send a written apology to parents and has instituted a new policy against throwing sticks at squirrels.