Hope for the North

Posted by EthicsandAnimals at 5/7/2008 3:00 PM and is filed under Legislation Issues in Canada
Update: May 7, 2008
Hope has recovered from parvovirus and was flown back home last night, so happy to be with her new family who will shower her with love and care.

Hope at the park with her new family

Posted May 6, 2008 by Colleen (please sign petition)

I received a request to post about the bleak situation for abused and neglected animals living in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut in Canada's far north (see map).

HOPE is a six-month-old female dog in Hay River, NT who has endured a life of horrific neglect. She was found starving to death, infested with mites, open, oozing rotting flesh, severe malnutrition, festering open sores (her collar buckle embedded in the infected flesh below her chin) and festering flesh on her flanks and hips.

Hope at time of rescue

 Currently, the NT and Nunavut have no animal protection acts. Dogs and cats are routinely dropped off in the middle of nowhere and only if they are lucky enough to be found do they get help. This is wild country, remote and open.

In some communities in the NT, dogs are rounded up and shot because negligent owners allow them to roam loose.

In another instance when the SPCA and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) arrived to remove dogs due to neglect, they found the owner sitting on 59 corpses. He had shot each dog, dragged their bodies into a pile and was sitting on the pile when they arrived. This event prompted the Yukon Territory, which already had a Protection Act in place, to make amendments with stricter penalties and protection to ensure that this type of incident would not ever occur in the Yukon.

The abuse and neglect must end. An Animal Protection Act must be put into effect in the NT. Pressure on the Territories’ government MUST be made in order to do this.

A petition has been created to push for legislation. Please sign and circulate. (Click here)
Help build a shelter in Hay River, NT.
If you can help out the Hay River SPCA with its ongoing needs (click here), that would be greatly appreciated. Funds are desperately needed to build a shelter in Hay River. Had one been established already, perhaps Hope would have been surrendered and not allowed to suffer as she has.  Currently, individual SPCA volunteers foster any new arrivals in their own home.

As for Hope, she has spent the last month undergoing extensive care in Yellowknife and thankfully she may be returning to her newly adoptive family, the individuals who found her. She had spent three weeks in hospital, and was greeted on her return home a week ago at the airport by her new family and many who TRULY care. Unfortunately Hope fell very ill within a few days and was flown back to Yellowknife where she received treatment to fight Parvovirus. Last word is that if she tests negative after undergoing the newest treatment, she will be returning to her new family once again.


Hope on her recent visit with her new family

Updates will be posted on both Hope's condition and the campaign for legislation.

For other abuse and rescue cases in the north (click here)

Articles concerning abuse and legislation issues in the north
Dog deaths bring laws into question, June 27, 2006
Yukon proposes tougher animal protection laws, April 22, 2008
Dawson City-area dog shootings interview, June 27, 2006

 

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  • 5/6/2008 6:32 PM Bonnie Dawson wrote:
    I am the person who started this Petition and who provided all of the above information and photos. I thank you so much for posting the article.

    A recent email forwarded to me cites another typical scenario: a young female dog soon to come into heat, the owner queried about how soon she would, and once given the answer said it would soon be time to shoot her as she did not want to deal with pups. The female was turned loose, taken by someone else, tied to a two foot lead, Barked alot, and was turned loose again. Thankfully she has been taken in by a caring person, but now there is an urgent need to find foster care for her. She is a 5-6 month old Husky pup.

    One of many on-going situations, very common place. Positive Action HAS GOT to be taken .
    Reply to this
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