Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

NNSL (Sep 01/99) - The call for attention is loud and starts as soon as you take the first step toward the dog pound instead of the front door of the Great Slave Animal Hospital.

The hospital runs the city pound, a temporary home for dogs that have either run away or been cast off by uncaring owners.

It will also likely be the last home for a few dogs there right now. The pound is full to overflowing. There's room for 12 dogs and on the weekend 17 were being kept there.

"You feel bad, but you can't get too attached," said Mark Yeatman. "At least in here they've got shelter and food for the time being and they're not wandering the streets."

The owner and operator of Wyeat Janitorial, Yeatman said he has seen "hundreds" of dogs come and go during the four years his company has had the contract cleaning the kennel.

Life and death at the kennel is a numbers game. With space for a dozen dogs, the pound is coping with the overflow by doubling up dogs in two kennels and keeping others in the hospital's boarding kennel.

Space in the boarding kennel will be needed for dogs being boarded over the Labour Day weekend.

"It's (the pound kennel) full right now, so I think next week we're probably going to have to put some down," said veterinary assistant Jola Pisz.

Time is the enemy of every dog at the pound. The longer they stay the more it costs to get out, and the less likely some owners are to get them out.

The city sets the fines, and under the current bylaw the penalties increase dramatically the number of times a dog is impounded in a 12-month period.

Properly licensed dogs cost $40 to free the first time. For unlicensed dogs, the fine is $75 for the first violation. The second offence the fine jumps to $150 and each subsequent capture in the same 12-month period costs $300 a shot. The fines come in addition to a $15.20 per day pound fee.