Humane society takes in dogs threatened by cull
By Chen Chekki, The Chronicle-Journal
Apr 15, 2007, 00:02

Dogs in remote northern First Nations need federal help to deal with overpopulation and avoid malnutrition, abuse and massive culling, say some Thunder Bay animal lovers.
The problem has led to the Thunder Bay and District Humane Society taking in about 14 dogs from unspecified reserves in the last 10 days or so — more than it has ever saved from reserves at one time in the last 10 years.
“We agreed to take whatever (dogs) that could be shipped down to us,” said Jack Remus, president of the humane society in Thunder Bay. He said there are no other places in Northwestern Ontario to take the dogs.
The humane society has typically accepted one or two dogs a year from reserves. Remus said it is about time the federal government acted to help reserves control animal populations by sending veterinarians to spay or neuter the animals.
He said “dog shoots” are “inhumane” and common in reserves in Northern Ontario as a way to control their numbers.
Witnessing such shoots, which have been known to happen almost anywhere on reserves out in the open, are not good for a child’s mental health if they happen to see it, Remus said.
Also, poverty is a way of life on many reserves and dogs that are alive as pets or as stray animals are often malnourished, or severely starving, says Karen Bester, a Thunder Bay woman who says she rescues dogs from remote fly-in reserves.
Blaming Ottawa for the apparent lack of animal welfare on remote reserves, she says the “disgusting” condition of the dogs can add to the despair felt by people living on many reserves and may be associated with their well-known high levels of suicides.
Remus said the dogs they recently accepted were in fairly “good shape,” but dogs in the past from remote reserves have typically been “very malnourished.”
He said the humane society in Thunder Bay is mandated to deal with pets from the Thunder Bay District only, but has made an exception in accepting the dogs from the remote reserves.
“As long as we have room, we will take them,” Remus said.
The recent batch of dogs included six puppies, and some people have already offered to adopt some of them.
Bester said that in some remote fly-in only reserves, staff who enter from outside to work in them, such as nurses and teachers, can end up traumatized.
Stan Beardy, grand chief of Nishnawbe Aski Nation, said he has not been made aware of any dog problems the area he represents. He said dog welfare is in the hands of each individual First Nation and believes the dogs that the humane society is receiving are likely from isolated incidents. “I’m not sure there is a dog problem or a problem of stray dogs,” he said.

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