A puppy who was found in a bag Thursday, succumbed to his injuries Friday at a Prince Albert vet clinic. (Facebook/Wendy Fyrk)

By Nigel Maxwell

Animal cruelty

Bag of puppies dropped in a Prince Albert area driveway

Jul 24, 2020 | 2:58 PM

A frontline animal rescue worker in the Prince Albert area says she feels heartbroken and frustrated by a tragic discovery this week at a rural property west of the city.

Wendy Fyrk was notified Thursday that a bag of puppies was left in a driveway. Upon opening the bag, the finder discovered four of the puppies were in such poor condition, they had to be euthanized. The other puppy later succumbed to its injuries at a local vet clinic.

“The biggest problem is that Saskatchewan and Manitoba have the biggest dog problem, and no place to put them,” Fyrk said. “I think people get frustrated. They feel like they’ve reached out to an SPCA or a shelter, and they are full, so they can’t take them, so they feel that this is their only option.”

Fyrk said while deaths like these are rare, phone calls for abandoned boxes of puppies or kittens are common. She said tragedies like this can be easily avoided if more people spayed or neutered their animals.

“A lot of people complain about the price of that, well the price they are paying when they are not doing it is ridiculous. All these animals are dying because you’ve decided it’s your dog’s fault that it’s getting pregnant. It’s not your dog’s fault,” she said.

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Erin Deems is the executive director the Saving Grace Animal Society in Alberta, one of several groups Fyrk turns to for help when placing animals. Deems told paNOW they get about 100 dogs a month from Saskatchewan.

She explained people need to take responsibility for their own animals.

“Keep going, keep trying to find help because there are so many rescue groups out there that are reputable and maybe they can’t help you at that certain time but maybe they can give you a lead on someone who can,” she said.

Fyrk said a great tool locally people can use is social media, citing the numerous missing or lost dogs groups on Facebook.

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell