Letter to the Editor:

Death is merciful for the thousands and thousands of northern dogs born each year across Canada. Life is starvation; lonely and cruel with dog on dog aggression and on too many occasions, human abuse. Death is merciful for these dogs. Dog shoots, the only method currently available to many small towns and northern reserves. But what the hell, through out history culling has been "acceptable" to control animal populations has it not? Elephants, bears?? I'm no expert, but doesn't the list go on? So what about hanging? Is this ok too? What about drowning, does this work for you? What about slowly starving to death? Then no ones hands get dirty.

Ignorance is bliss. Ask Grand Chief Stan Beardy. Ask governmental policy makers. Ask Lt. Governor James Bartleman, who refuses to respond to my requests to at least acknowledge and possibly endorse the need to address this problem on a national level. On the other hand, let's ask the front line teachers and nurses that work in many of these remote locations and are traumatized by witnessing the starvation and abuse. Lets ask the locals what they feel. Heaven forbid, lets ask people like me that rescue these animals. How about this. I had to have a six week old pup that was rescued from up north put down the day after it was flown out. Its legs were crippled and deformed and it was disembowelled. Yes, you heard right. Its bowels were hanging out. Abuse? Inbreeding? Who knows. Oh, it smiled and licked me on the way to the vet. Wait, I have a another story to share. It's about a starving dog that traumatized a young northern girl as she watched it run into her home, grab her kitten and swallow it in one bite. Oops, maybe I should not have told that one. Lance Ribbonlet of the North Tallcree reserve in northern Alberta, dead at 5 years of age by dog attack.... Let me take this opportunity to say thanks to the Chronicle Journal for proudly displaying that article on the front page entitled "Humane Society takes in dogs threatened by cull"….to bad the writer, Chen Chekki forgot to print the rest of the story. I know I gave it to him. As it stood, it lacked depth. It just stirred the pot. How about this. Health Canada, First Nations and Inuit Health Division, memorandum dated December 1, 2006, states any nurse caught feeding or housing or rescuing dogs on northern Ontario reserves will be immediately dismissed. In northern communities where there have been military evacuations b/c of flooding or mold, army planes going in empty, refusing to take dog food up, leaving the communities animals to starve, not even acknowledging the existence of the problem. Check this out, its excerpts of an email from a teacher on a remote reserve "All our dogs are gone. They have killed 12 dogs; they went dog hunting yesterday. Cherry was one of them and only 1 ½ years old….she was the one we were trying to get out…she loved everyone and would have made a wonderful pet. She would come to my classroom window, put her paws up and look in as if to say "I'm here, where is my food"…. don't send up another cage right now…. we need to heal. I keep hoping it's a nightmare and I will wake up and see them all again….". Lack of access and skyrocketing costs plague many northern communities across Canada. I know that in the grand scheme of things animal welfare is low on the totem pole. People first. But we can not spend the next century pretending that this problem does not exist. The suffering of Canada 's dogs and cats and the potential dangers that they pose on various levels of a community, particularly our youth, necessitate a coordinated action that can only improve the overall mental and physical health of community members. Study after study has shown the psychological affects of exposure to neglect/abuse and animal suffering as perpetuating the cycle of despair, hopelessness and violence which thrives in environments of social stress and isolation. With the high suicide rates of Youth on reserves, this is yet one more emotional contributing factor that is within our power to address. We need a government strategy that can establish priorities and targets with community based groups, a strategy that will be sustainable over time. Mahatma Gandhi, "I hold that, the more helpless a creature is, the more it is entitle to protection by man from the cruelty of man" (thanks Hugh MacDonald)….whether cruelty is intentional or a by product of neglect and ignorance. Or just plain political. On the upside, the World Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is organizing the first ever 2007 Northern Dog Conference in the Fall, as a starting point for finding solutions. Lets see if any of the various levels of government that are going to be invited attend. I personally will make sure Stan Beardy gets an invitation. Also, as the northern dog lady, I have rescued/relocated over 400 dogs in the past four years. My goal has been to facilitate access to spay/neuter programs on northern Ontario resources. A daunting task let me tell you. I do it in my spare time. I have a real job. Anyways, fantastic news, the Canadian Animal Assistance Team www.caat-canada.org/ , is a registered charity animal welfare organization out of Vancouver, comprised of Vet professionals across Canada dedicated to the care of needy animals world wide. They heard about my rescue work and contacted me as they would like to start up an Ontario branch, and work together on offering their first remote spay/neuter/immunization program on a fly in reserve. Nibinamik (Summer Beaver) is thrilled to be the involved in this project. We will draw on the experience of those who spearheaded a similar project in Cat Lake a couple of years ago. I hope that a foundation can be laid for future initiatives on other reserves, eventually with governmental funding. On a final note, Thunder Bay does not even have affordable spay and neturing programs. I would like to challange local vets and organizations like the Keri Chase Foundation to look into cleaning up our own backyard.

Karen Bester

Northern Dog Lady