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By Nigel Maxwell

Stray dogs on reserves

Young girls at James Smith escape attack by stray dogs

Mar 2, 2019 | 8:00 AM

An incident on the James Smith Cree Nation last week involving two young girls being attacked by a small pack of stray dogs, illustrates how serious the problem has become, according to the band’s Director of Public Works.

Bill Marion told paNOW stray dogs are being dropped on the reserve by people who don’t live in the community.

“There were these two stray dogs and they attacked these two young girls and lucky there was a young gentleman around who saved the girls, he basically fought off the dogs,” he said.

Marion said the girls were fortunately not harmed and the RCMP was called in to assist. Marion said his first priority in his role as public works director is to make every effort to try and save the dogs, but explained sometimes there is no other option but to have the dogs shot and killed.

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“I guess the bottom line is really the dog’s life or the person’s life in our situation,” he said.

In addition to his work for the band, Marion also sits on the environmental health working group for the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, who work in partnership with the University of Saskatchewan veterinary college. Together they have developed a strategy to address dog-related issues on first nations communities.

“Of course we realize financial resources play a significant part in this and it’s something we don’t have but definitely it’s a threat to our community so we have to elevate that to a priority,” he said.

James Smith Cree Nation currently does not have a specific dog bylaw in place but Ray Lindain at the band’s health office has been among the community members advocating for council to develop one.

“I gave a draft of a bylaw but it hasn’t been implemented because of funding problems and things like that,” he said.

Lindain said his proposed bylaw includes having someone hired to look after dog control and also having all dogs on the reserve registered. He explained nobody knows who owns the dogs, and in many cases they don’t know if the dogs have been spayed or neutered.

“When dogs are hungry by nature they are predators and they attack children and we have had several dog bites and we are lucky so far we have not seen any serious tragedy,” he said.

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nigell.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell