BEHCHOKO - Six newborn puppies, eyes still closed, were found left for dead at Behchoko dump last week, with only one remaining alive thanks to round the clock care from the Great Slave Animal Hospital.

The animal hospital was called Sunday, Oct. 11, by a man who would not identify himself, saying he found six puppies with their throats slit, and two had already died.

"He didn't want to tell us the name, I don't know why," said Dr. Tom Pisz of the Great Slave Animal Hospital.

The puppies were not brought into the clinic until the Tuesday, by which time two more of the litter had died. Both of the remaining puppies were severely dehydrated and despite the desperate efforts of Pisz and his team, one of the two puppies died.

"Somebody tried to kill them by cutting their throats, but they didn't do a very good job," said Pisz. "They died from dehydration, not from having their throats cut."

Now, one week on, the sole surviving puppy, a surprisingly chipper little female, is receiving round the clock care by the clinic's staff, taking turns to bottle feed her every four hours.

The results of the clumsy effort to terminate the puppy are disturbingly visible. The wound cannot be stitched up because she is too weak to handle the anaesthetic surgery would require.

Dr Pisz hopes she will be strong enough for surgery in the next few days. The puppy will need to be bottle fed for the next four weeks, and after six weeks Pisz hopes she will be adopted out.

Meanwhile, Pisz said he is angry about the callousness of the act but said it was not a common occurrence.

"This doesn't happen very often but it's a very cruel and rude thing to do," he said. "It makes me very angry. It's just terrible."

He said the likelihood of finding the culprit is extremely low, and the consequences of their actions would not be severe.

"It's animal cruelty, but we don't know who did it so nothing will happen," he said. "There are usually not very big consequences. It's usually just a fine."

Pisz said there are more humane ways to euthanize puppies but there is one solution that would eliminate the need. "The best thing is to spay the female and not have puppies at all."

Sarah Hunt, NWT SPCA president, said that while spaying and neutering a pet can cost between $100 to $200, her organization offers interest free loans for people struggling to afford the process.

"We work out the terms and conditions of that loan based on the individual's circumstances, it's very flexible," She said.

"We've given out loans where the minimum requirement is $10 a month, and we haven't gotten a lot of uptake on that."

She said even if the owner of the puppies could not afford to keep them, there are other options.

"They could have called us... We do have limited resources but we try our best and if we get a call with an emergency situation, we pull the resources together and do whatever we can," she said. "They have a responsibility for their dog but they also have responsibility for any offspring that the dog produces. They're not disposable beings."

Hunt said the NWT SPCA's main priority, coming out of its annual general meeting on Sept. 30, is to work to establish a spaying and neutering campaign combined with an educational campaign.

She explained the spaying and neutering campaign would involve a mobile clinic from the South.

"What we would do is pilot it in communities close to Yellowknife - N'dilo, Dettah and Behchoko," she said, adding it then could go to remote communities.

However, before any of that can happen, she said the SPCA needs to develop key contacts with the leadership of the communities and find funding.

"We don't have enough money now to get spaying/neutering mobile clinics brought up to the North," Hunt said, adding it is unknown how much it would cost and when the campaign might happen, although she hopes it can be developed over the next year.

- with files from Paul Bickford