SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
NWT SPCA employee Melissa Zizek is worried somebody is trying to hurt the shelter dogs after a greasy liquid was found in the organization's water tank last week.

NWT SPCA employee Melissa Zizek peers into a water tank which was found to be containing a mysterious greasy liquid last week. - Evan Kiyoshi French/NNSL photo

The shelter worker heard about it the afternoon of Aug. 13, the day another employee found a strange greasy liquid in an outdoor water tank while she was filling a bucket to clean dog pens.

"She opened (the water tank) up and it was really greasy inside," said Zizek. "We're not sure if it was intestines. That was the feeling of it, like stringy pieces."

Zizek said she's angry and frightened to think somebody may have tampered with the drinking water.

She said since there are animals that live in outdoor pens, people visit them at all hours.

"We battle with this all the time," she said. "People come here during the closing hours. We want the volunteers, but we don't want this."

Some of the dogs are clearly sick, Zizek said, but staff don't know if it's from the water or something else.

"We have many that have diarrhea but it's hard to say," she said, adding that they've found evidence in the dogs' feces that they are being fed by people other than staff.

"There are things in there that we don't feed our dogs," she said. "Are they sick because someone is giving them something they shouldn't?"

Animals aren't the only ones drinking water at the SPCA, said Zizek. She said she's worried that if someone tampered with the dogs' water they might be able to contaminate other water sources as well.

"My kids come here and volunteer with me," she said. "I give my kids that water."

RCMP called

Nicole Spencer, president of the NWT SPCA, said the case has been reported to the RCMP. She said staff has done its own investigating, and they're sure the substance was deliberately put into the tank.

"It was definitely put in there," she said.

She said the employee who found the mess noticed the contrast of the white greasy substance against the dark-blue of the pail she was trying to fill.

"She called us and told us," she said. "So we went and looked and investigated it and it looked like fat. It looked like grease and fat from a household. It looked like wet-tissue paper. When we dumped it out it had the consistency of skin. So we don't know what it was. It wasn't oily or gassy (smelling). It didn't grow in there or anything, it was definitely put in there."

Spencer said the container holds around 800 litres of water and sits in on the property behind the building.

"We've called RCMP and there's a file on it, but there's not much more we can do," she said, adding that substance was dumped so it won't be tested for possible contaminants. She said she doubts the substance was in the tank for long.

"I think our volunteers are pretty astute to the water and I'm sure they would have noticed something," she said. "I'm thinking it happened the night before."

She said she's never heard of water tampering at the facility before.

"We do have cameras up because a number of years ago we had a puppy stolen," she said. "But there's three of them, they're at awkward angles and we try to have them on the dogs. There just happened to not be one on that particular corner of the facility. We're going to have another look at it to see if we see somebody the night before. It's scary. And it's an invasion of our property. And it ... brings that fear that somebody could hurt the dogs."

RCMP spokesperson Sgt. Donald Duplissea did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

Janet Pacey, whose Australian terrier, Roo, died after consuming an unidentified toxin in July, said she had tests run on her other dog, Candy, a shih tzu, who fell ill around the same time.

"The vet came back and said there was no toxins found," she said. "It doesn't mean there wasn't anything in her system. We are at a loss. We have no idea what it was."

She said it's frustrating because her dogs pick things up off the ground and she can't be sure it won't happen again.

"I have no idea what caused this," she said. "It's a constant speculation on my part whether it was intentional or not."

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