Petition brings dog control to forefront
SPCA exec says organization regularly encounters animals that have had 10 litters in their lifetime
Meagan Leonard
Northern News Services
Monday, March 23, 2015
FORT PROVIDENCE
A Fort Providence resident wants to draw attention to the continued problem of stray dogs in small communities around the territory.
NWT SPCA vice-president Dana Martin said goodbye to Jonas, left, last week. The dog is a rescue from Fort Providence. SPCA sent Jonas to the Vancouver Canine Society where he will have a better chance of being adopted. - Meagan Leonard/NNSL photo |
Linda Croft posted on an online petition website called change.org last week and since then it has received more than 50 signatures.
"Anyone who lives in our community is well aware that there is a serious dog problem," Croft wrote on the page.
"There are dogs who are left without food/shelter. There are dogs that are allowed to run wild through the streets - free to attack as they choose."
Some communities have successfully reduced their number of dogs by working closely with the NWT SPCA to ship out strays and promote spay and neuter programs. However, many places do not have kennel facilities to store animals and still practice dog culling as population control. NWT SPCA president Nicole Spencer says she wants to get the word out there so residents become aware of their options.
"There isn't a lot of education on spay (and) neuter," Spencer says. "There's also the tradition of, 'This is the way it's always been, we've never got our dogs spayed or neutered, so why should we do it now' ... it doesn't take that many dogs to reproduce and cause a problem."
She said the organization regularly comes across female dogs who have had more than 10 litters in their lifetimes.
"Communities like puppies because it's something for children to play with," she said. "Then as they grow, they're just kind of afraid of them and they're shooed away ... in six months time they're having babies."
She says her organizations has been working to get travelling clinics out to smaller areas. These clinics offer spaying, neutering and vaccinations at half the regular cost but she said a lot of times people just don't show up.
"The vet is there for two days, they could have spayed and neutered every dog there but people just didn't show up," she said. "There were posters up, people knew about it but it's not that important to a lot of people."
Norman Wells public works supervisor Brian Gillis says it only took him a year to clean up the 20-year dog problem in his community.
"I have a strict no-kill policy here, so I co-ordinate with the SPCA in Yellowknife," he explained. "A big part of it is understanding and being respectful to the people here and trying to convince them to do the right thing as opposed to forcing them to do it ... and not just tell them there's a problem but also provide a solution."
Gillis says he captures loose dogs and provides the ill or injured ones with veterinary services. If he knows who the animal belongs to, he returns it to them with a warning or arranges to have the dog sent to Yellowknife.
"I don't write fines to people, basically they just get sick of seeing me," he laughs. "If I find that dogs are being neglected or dogs are not being cared for, I take them and stop the problem before it gets greater."
Gillis advises any community considering a dog bylaw officer to make sure the person has significant experience with animals.
"People need to be educated in the needs of dogs, they need to be educated that certain breeds of dogs don't belong in the North," he said. "I see a lot of animals up here that people don't understand they're not like a husky, you can't leave them outdoors in -45 C for a day. I've (seen) dogs freeze to death."
Part of it stems from cultural tradition says Deh Cho MLA Michael Nadli, who brought the issue to the legislative assembly last fall. He says because the presence of dogs is so ingrained in community heritage, it is difficult to change those attitudes.
"For a long time dogs have been part of Northern history ... especially dog teams," he said. "Now we have snow machines but there's still the idea that dogs are supposed to be part of every little child's upbringing."
Currently there seems to be no easy solution. In a statement responding to Croft's petition, Fort Providence Mayor Tina Gargan said the hamlet cannot hire a bylaw officer because it no longer receives funding for those positions from the GNWT.
"Our community, like almost all the others in the NWT, does not have the private tax base to support this type of position without government support," she stated. "The possibility of that fact changing is sadly not a real option now, or in the perceivable future for most of the hamlets in the NWT."
Department of Municipal and Community affairs spokesperson David Maguire said communities are given a lump sum of funding and it is up to the hamlet to decide how it is used.
"We provide funding to community governments to support the cost of municipal programs and services," he said. "The funding is not specific for any program ... community government will decide through the budget process what the money should be spent on."
