Yellowknife (Sep 24/04) - Due to recent drop in adoptions, dogs from Yellowknife's pound, located at the Great Slave Animal Hospital, were flown to Edmonton Sept. 21.

"We had 11 dogs, ranging in age from two months to 11 years, that were taken to the Edmonton Humane Society," said Janet Pacey, president of the NWT SPCA.

"We are sad that we had to resort to putting the animals through the stress of flying but they are going to a place where they have a better chance of being adopted."

Pacey believes adoptions are down because Yellowknife just doesn't have the population base to support all the dogs that need homes.

"There hasn't been an increase in the animals we are getting in but people are moving away or are moving into town. It's a bizarre time of year for someone to adopt an animal," she said.

The SPCA has not had to fly animals out of Yellowknife since last September, when they shipped 45 dogs that were seized from a property on Highway 3.

"First Air agreed to ship all of the dogs for free and without their sponsorship, we don't know what would have happened to these animals," added Pacey.

"But Edmonton's larger population base may ensure new homes for the dogs," she said. "They arrived safely on Wednesday morning and were ready for adoption right away."