Mayor facing questions over dead dogs

The mayor of a Northern Saskatchewan community is defending a decision to shoot and kill a woman's three dogs.

The woman from Winnipeg was visiting friends in Buffalo Narrows.

She had let the dogs out of the house. Later, when she couldn't find them, she spoke to an RCMP officer, who told her the community's dog catcher was shooting stray dogs that day. She then found her dead dogs at the local landfill.

The woman's story was not completely accurate, said Mayor Bobby Woods.

“She did mention that they had only been out for a couple of hours, but we had other sources that told us those dogs had been loose for four or five days and some people felt threatened by them.”

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The community has a problem with stray dogs and they must consider safety first, he said.

“And we all know what happened in previous years — the story in Ile-a-la-Crosse when the kid was mauled by a dog and had numerous stitches to his face. Just last year a young 12 year old in Canoe Lake, just an hour south of us, got killed by a dog.”

Woods said they do make every effort to contact the owners before destroying the animals.

“If a dog is loose and it has a collar and it has a dog tag, then our animal control officer contacts the town office. We then call the owner and give them a chance to pick up their dog for a fee of $50.”

In this case, even though the animals were tagged, the town did not have their records.

Woods said he has been receiving numerous emails and phone calls about this case.

“I had a meeting (Tuesday) night with our council and I told them that in the first part of the new year we would be coming up with a plan. Perhaps live traps and we could keep the animals impounded for a few days. If nobody claims them, then we would do what we had to do.”

Woods said the town would also look at a temporary solution of finding a place where they could hold the animals.

nmaxwell@panow.com