CBC Manitoba – Northern dogs crowd Winnipeg Humane Society
Last Updated Nov 25 2005 05:32 PM CST
CBC News
The Winnipeg Humane Society is trying to cope with an influx of dozens of dogs from northern Manitoba communities.
In the last several weeks, the Winnipeg Humane Society has received about 60 dogs from northern communities and reserves. The dogs – many of them puppies – are now up for adoption.
Alix Sobler, spokeswoman for the Winnipeg Humane Society, says many northern communities do not offer easy access to veterinary care, so many dogs are never spayed or neutered. Some communities don’t have animal shelters, either.
As a result, Sobler says large gangs of stray dogs – usually hungry and often sick – end up roaming around northern communities. Some towns resort to shooting the wild dogs to protect citizens from them.
“When these dogs are stray and don’t have places to live or to eat, they will do what they have to in order to find these things,” she said. “There have been cases of dogs mauling or hurting each other when they get into that very hungry, pack mentality, and there’s diseases spread and they get injured and they have no one to take care of them.”
The humane society is sending veterinary teams to some of those areas, she said, but it has also agreed to take some of the dogs to put them up for adoption in Winnipeg.
As word spread, many northern residents began to shell out for the animals’ trips south. In some cases, people even drove the dogs to the city to personally drop them off at the humane society.
Germaine and Jim Garden were at the humane society Friday to choose a new pet from the northern pups. The couple has lived up north, so they’re familiar with the problem of stray animals.
“What happens to these poor little critters? We don’t want to bring any into the world just for, you know, our own satisfaction or use. We like to help out, as well,” said Jim Garden.
Thirty of the dogs are ready for adoption. Some have already been spoken for, but officials at the humane society say they’re getting calls every day about more dogs en route to the city.
WINNIPEG HUMANE SOCIETY: More on adopting pets
Copyright © CBC 2005
~~~~~~~~~~~
Leave a Reply