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WHATI/LAC LA MARTRE
RCMP are investigating after a dog and her puppies were found starving and abandoned on an island near Whati last week.

A mother dog and her puppies were rescued from an island near Whati. The animals were in poor health when they were found. - photo courtesy of the NWTSPCA

Sgt. Wes Heron said RCMP members in the community were called on Aug. 26.

"All I can say is on Sunday, our members got a call," Heron said. "There were some dogs that appeared weren't being appropriately cared for. The investigation is still open."

Nicole Spencer, president of the Northwest Territories SPCA, said Whati RCMP members contacted her shortly after the dogs were found. The mother and her three puppies will stay with a foster family in Whati until the adult dog is strong enough to travel to Yellowknife, Spencer said.

"The dogs are still in Whati in a home that's providing care for them for a couple weeks," she said. "When she is healthy enough, we'll fly them to Yellowknife."

Spencer said there have already been a number of offers to adopt the dogs, mostly from shelters down south.

"We've had offers from rescues down south that are willing to take her and her pups, but we might find a home here," she said. "She's pretty skeletal, so it will take a few weeks for her to get back on her paws."

Spencer said while this story has a happy ending, the situation speaks to a much larger problem in the North.

"This is not a new thing," she said. "There are dogs all over the North that are unwanted and starving and abused."

Without proper veterinary services to spay and neuter dogs, animals are breeding "out of control," Spencer said.

"The reality is that the communities do not have vet care, so the overpopulation of dogs is contributing to this neglect," she said.

There are only three veterinarians operating in the territory, two in Yellowknife and one in Inuvik, Spencer said. Another vet from Alberta visits Fort Smith and Hay River on an annual basis while another group of vets from Calgary visit the Sahtu region.

While the effort is certainly welcome, it isn't enough to sufficiently reduce the problem, Spencer said.

"My big thing is people are going to have dogs in the communities, they can't stop them reproducing," she said. "It's too expensive to send their dogs into Yellowknife or Inuvik to get fixed, so it's an impossible situation."

In order to be effective, the territorial government needs to help fund annual clinics in every community, Spencer said.

"There needs to be some kind of program, through, I would think, the GNWT, that we get a spay/neuter clinic into every community," she said. "Go in every year for a couple years and get it under control."

Spencer said in addition to controlling the population, annual veterinarian visits would ensure dogs are being vaccinated against diseases, such as rabies and parvovirus.

"It's a health issue too," she said.

She said people in communities often call asking for help to track down veterinary medicine supplies so they can try and mitigate problems at home.

"In the last couple of weeks, I've had two different communities contact me for help," she said. "Different things like, 'We need vaccinations' or 'How can we get rabies vaccines?' or, 'Is there any way to put down the dogs without shooting them?

"Our resources are limited, too."

But Spencer said though some people have good intentions, the resources simply aren't available, especially when it means putting an animal on an expensive plane trip to a larger community to visit a veterinarian.

"Even if people want to do the best by their dogs, vet-wise, they can't," she said. "The problem is not going away."

Shelter needs funding

The NWT SPCA is completely run by volunteers who all hold regular full-time jobs, Spencer said.

It used to be connected with the Great Slave Animal Hospital, but is now operating its own foster care program and accepts animals from across the territory, Spencer said.

Ninety per cent of the animals taken in through the group's fostering program are shipped south via a network of shelters in British Columbia and Alberta, although some find homes within the territory, she said.

The group is currently building a shelter scheduled to open in October with enough room to accommodate 10 cats and 15 dogs - at first.

Spencer said with more than 220 dogs going through the group's fostering program each year, the shelter will need at least 30 kennels. The design plan includes building an additional 10 outdoor kennels for huskies, according to the SPCA website.

"We only had enough money for 15," Spencer said. "We'll need another $20,000 for the" rest."

The group is now trying to fundraise between $30,000 and $40,000 to completely finish the shelter. Spencer said while the total cost for the project is nearly $1 million.Donations and in-kind support has helped keep costs to about $800,000.

Spencer said although the group is nearing its goal of completing the shelter, she worries about having the funds to keep it running.

Spencer said with such a large facility and the sheer number of dogs it is expected to accommodate, the group will need to hire at least one full-time manager and one part-time employee.

"We need funding," she said. "We have no idea how we're going to run it because we're all volunteers."

NWT Dog Act

Heron said once found, the dogs' owners could face "some measure of prosecution," but said any repercussion would be a court decision.

"That would be entirely up to a court process to determine that," he said.

He said RCMP members in Whati are determining whom the dogs belonged to.

"The guys are working hard to try and find who is responsible for this and who actually owns the dogs."

According to the NWT Dog Act, first-time offenders could face a maximum fine of $2,500, a three-month prison sentence or both. A second offence carries a maximum fine of $10,000, a six-month prison sentence or both.

Animal protection laws in the NWT were ranked among the lowest in the country in 2012, according to the Animal Legal Defense Fund, which measures the effectiveness of animal protection regulations throughout Canada and the United States.

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