(Submitted/Gayle Yungwirth)

By Nigel Maxwell

Community safety

Northern community faces backlash over planned dog cull

Apr 12, 2022 | 5:18 PM

Pending the hiring of a person to carry out the work, the northern community of Pelican Narrows is strongly looking at the possibility of conducting a dog cull over the Easter long weekend.

According to a statement from Chief and council, the bounty hunter will be out and about in the community, and local residents who want to save their pets are encouraged to keep them tied up. Councillor Sarah Swan explained to paNOW the situation, which she attributed to negligent owners, has gotten very bad.

“In less than one week we had 10 people (adults) taken to the clinic regarding dog bites and the nurse said one of them would have been fatal if it wasn’t caught on time,” she said.

Estimating there’s currently as many as 100 stray dogs running around the community, Swan noted an incident as recently as Tuesday morning where a pack of 20 dogs was seen in a bunch, fighting, and tearing another dog apart. She explained the community has tried using a bounty program in the past, but has had trouble hiring people to do the work.

“Some got in trouble like the owners would get mad at the bounty for killing their dogs that were unchained, untied and not taken care of,” she said.

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While the planned cull this weekend is still not a guarantee, Swan explained the person hired to do the cull will pick up the stray dogs, and perform the task at the dump, away from the eyes of young children.

The community’s plans have not gone unnoticed and at least one dog rescue group has appealed through social media for the community to meet with them and develop a better plan. Swan explained the community has used a rescue group in the past, but claimed the rescuer was only taking away the smaller, hungry dogs and not the bigger, more aggressive dogs. She also added the volunteer was not from the actual community.

“She doesn’t see and hear of all these incidents happening, like she doesn’t walk our streets to see all the dog packs and all the mean dogs that are on every street”, Swan said. “She would be scared.”

(Submitted/Gayle Yungwirth)

Gayle Yungwirth, with North of 54 Frontline Dog Rescue, is the volunteer who has been travelling to the northern community for the past three-and-a-half years. She told paNOW she was surprised hear about the cull plans.

“To my knowledge there has not been a cull/shoot in the community since I started rescuing there in late 2018,” she said.

With respect to the situation at hand, Yungworth agreed there are a lot of dogs there, but added it is very hard to determine whether a dog is owned or not. Most dogs roam freely throughout the community and do not have collars which immediately identifies whether they are owned.

Estimating that she traveIs to Pelican Narrows at least every two weeks, and sometimes weekly, Yungwirth said they have not done a large rescue there for awhile now as they do not have access to a cargo van. The closest place to rent is Prince Albert and there is no guarantee that a vehicle is always available.

“But whenever I go there I come home with dogs. I get messages and pics on a regular basis,” she said, explaining the pickups include surrenders, dogs/pups that have come to a property but are not their dogs, strays needing help, injured dogs (from dog fights or hit by cars), sick dogs, or Momma’s and babies that have been located in a den, or under a building.

(Submitted/Gayle Yungwirth)

When asked what option she would propose for the community, Yungwirth suggested they hire a full-time Animal Control Officer and provide them with a vehicle and proper equipment needed to rescue animals. Other options she thinks are good are limiting the number of dogs per household; and imposting a fine for owned dogs that get retrieved for a fine. If picked up a second time, the dog gets relocated.

“All dogs must be registered and tagged at the Band or Village Office, ideally with proof of vaccinations and spayed or neutered,” she said.

Moving forward Yungwirth said she has a group chat going with the five band council members from Pelican Narrows, and has requested a meeting Wednesday in the community.

“I want to say that I have met some absolutely awesome people in these communities.There are many families that take very good care of their pets, love their animals. Many in the community help animals in need by feeding them and reaching out to me. People thank me every time I go up there for what I am doing,” she said.

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nigel.maxwell@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell