HAY RIVER - Four years ago, Art Loupret decided he had enough of destroying unwanted animals.

As the bylaw enforcement officer in Hay River, Loupret is supposed to follow municipal regulations on roaming dogs. They say a dog is to be destroyed if not claimed from the municipal pound.

Art Loupret, the bylaw enforcement officer in Hay River, finds new homes for unwanted dogs. He has lived in Hay River since 1998. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

"I was doing it," he said. "I said enough is enough."

Instead, he now does everything he can to adopt the dogs out with help from the Hay River SPCA, noting some have been shipped as far as Ontario and Alberta. One dog was at the municipal pound about six months awaiting a new home.

It's crazy to kill the animals, because the problem really lies with the owners, Loupret said. "What did the animal do?"

Before he stopped it, about 60 dogs a year were being destroyed.

"The bylaw states I'm supposed to do it," he said. "I won't do it."

Loupret, who was born in Scotland and raised in Montreal, has lived in Hay River since 1998.

He and his wife left Quebec in 1976 just before the Parti Quebecois first came to power, he noted.

"We moved out when we found out Rene Levesque was going to get elected."

Loupret had been a policeman in Chateauguay, a city just outside Montreal.

Since leaving Quebec, he has lived in the North and has had many jobs, beginning as a warehouse person at Pine Point Mines. In Yellowknife, his jobs included firefighter at the airport and guard at a correctional centre.

In the early 1990s, he was bylaw enforcement officer in Rae-Edzo and later in Deline.

Before moving to Hay River for his current job, he was second in charge of safety and security at two Yellowknife-area mines.

Loupret said he enforces dozens of municipal bylaws, ranging from speed limits to regulations about garbage.

He has to know the bylaws by memory, he said. "If I've got to write out a ticket, I've got to know what it's for."

Loupret also enforces territorial traffic laws and even has the power to make arrests.

He is also known for stock car racing, which is a hobby he began in Hay River.

Loupret competes in several races in Hay River, Alberta and B.C. each year, driving a hand-built, open-wheel racer, a sportthat has cost him tens of thousands of dollars over the years.

"It's what relaxes me the most," he said.

Loupret, 61, and his wife, Marjorie, have been married almost 40 years and have two grown daughters.

"I'm looking forward to retiring soon," he said, noting that will likely be next year or the year after.

Loupret said he and his wife plan to stay in Hay River, where he may open a small auto detailing business or simply pump gas.

"I'll be a petroleum transfer specialist."