Inuvik has too many stray canines
Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services
Inuvik (May 25/01) - Stray dogs are killed in Inuvik on a weekly basis and having to round them up is a disheartening and time-consuming job for town employees.
| Rules and regs - Residents may keep as many as three dogs per household, provided they are vaccinated and licensed. - The cost of licensing dogs ranges from $10 for spayed or neutered animals to $20 for those that are not. - The fine for offences such as having more than three dogs, wilfully allowing them to roam or letting them be a nuisance is $100. - The fine for offences such as not properly securing dogs, securing them to trees or not keeping them in a clean area is $75.
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"The owners are the problem," he said. "Ninety per cent of the dogs we have are destroyed because it is easier for people to pick up a new dog instead of paying the fee."
Dog owners are charged $25 for every day their dog is in the pound and must license the animals before they can be taken home.
German said there are reports of packs of stray dogs roaming the streets, which becomes a health concern if they are not vaccinated.
The town has recently hired two dog bylaw officers. With the recruitment of other town employees dogs will be sought and taken away to the six-pen pound if found loose in town this weekend.
From then on "it will be random and at least once a month we will be doing a full blitz," German explained.
Dogs are held three days by the town before being put to sleep and then shot. Every week dog carcasses are taken to the dump for disposal.
German wants to change the bylaw to decrease holding times to 24 hours in order to remedy the problem and get pet owners motivated.
"There are three dog-team owners and they do keep their dogs properly," German said. "It's the pet owners. Some people even get tired of the animal and take it to us to destroy."
Spaying and neutering dogs in Inuvik is a twice-per-year event. Martin Male serves as a veterinarian's assistant but cannot perform the actual operation. That is left for the vet who visits Inuvik in the spring and fall.
"We have had as many as 38 surgeries in one weekend and as few as 12," he said. "Last November there were 12."
In April about 14 dogs were fixed. "I think it is starting to become a problem again," he added, referring to dog owner's attitudes.
Talk of starting a chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has been brought up several times at community meetings. But German said that, like caring for pets, no one seems to want to take responsibility at this time.
"A separate body other than town and bylaw would definitely help," Male added.
