YELLOWKNIFE - A Yellowknife animal collector says the federal government's concern for her safety is bordering on harassment.

Patricia Sherman says the government has gone too far. - Guy Quenneville/NNSL photo

Patricia Sherman's small, white house on 51st Street is owned by the Department of National Defence. She shares it with her husband Albert - a Department of National Defence employee. The house was inspected by the federal Department of Public Works on Thursday.

A safety officer, a DND housing rep and a DND union rep were also present.

The inspection was not the first for Sherman.

She said that, according to an agreement between her and Public Works, the bird room in her basement is inspected every year.

But now the government has gone too far, she says.

"Our original agreement was for them to have two people come in annually to inspect the premises where I was carrying on my hobby," said Sherman.

"I have no problem with that. "But in the last couple of years, it's just mushroomed - from checking the bird room to checking the other rooms, looking for mold, looking for fire hazards, looking for dust. Why?"

When Sherman moved into the house 15 years ago, she was breeding birds and domesticated mice.

Sherman says that the extent to which she could practise her hobby over the years has been affected by the Public Works' inspections.

"At the time I started (breeding), I had 93 birds," she said.

That number dwindled to six at the request of Public works in 1994. She now houses four birds.

"They (also) forced me to get rid of the mice," she said.

"Apparently they've got a big file on us about what awful problem tenants we are."

She also houses snakes, including one corn snake named "Houdini," as well as a 25-year-old turtle kept in a basement sink.

At one point during the inspection, Sherman opened her freezer to show the inspectors a Ziploc bag full of frozen mice, which she feeds to the snakes once a week.

The purpose of the inspection was to look into possible "sanitary and health issues," said Summer Halliday, deputy public affairs officer for Joint Task Force North.

The Public Works representative also made it clear to Sherman while News/North was present Thursday that the goal of the inspection was to allow Sherman to continue practising her hobby safely.

DND's Department of Preventative Medicine has also been called to the Sherman house in the past.

According to Halliday, "the Preventative Medicine department is only called in when Public Works has complaints from either neighbors or tradespeople needed to fix the house."

Halliday said a repairman working on a broken furnace in the Sherman home last year contacted a fire safety inspector, who in turn called Public Works. The fire safety inspector "thought there was some cause for potential harm (in the house)," said Halliday.

When asked what the hazard was, Halliday re-iterated that it had to do with "sanitary and health issues."

Sherman admits her house is not tidily kept.

"The house is somewhat cluttered," Sherman said. "I'm not a good housekeeper."

But she insists it has nothing to do with her hobby.

"That's just the way we are," said Sherman.

"Neither my husband or I have any housekeeping aptitude, and it's also I just get too tired."

Sherman said that when she first moved into the house, Public Works insisted she make modifications to the room in which she wanted to store the birds, such asputting down a new floor and installing a vapor barrier - a polyethylene or aluminum foil sheeting on the inside of a wall.

The renovations cost her $1,000, but that's not what upset Sherman most.

"An electrician (hired by Public Works to repair old wiring in the house) came in and tore down most of the vapour barrier. It was a huge disturbance for the birds. They had to be moved into tiny little cages, and several died as a result of it."

Now Sherman is worried that she will have to get rid of an aviary in her backyard, where she keeps her birds in the summer.

The Public Works inspector present during last Thursday's inspection warned Sherman that there was a strong possibility the aviary would have to be torn down due to concerns that it was structurally unsound.

Sherman believes there's nothing wrong with the aviary.

"Why tear down a solid framework?" she says. "I put down $2,000, had it all fixed up (The aviary was a worn-down solarium when Sherman moved into the house). I had a good roof put on it and converted it to an aviary. That is mine.

"If they tear it down...and for me to build another aviary, we're looking at a huge, huge expense. Because I'd be building it from the ground up instead of salvaging something that was salvageable."