PetSmart Charities of Canada has recently granted $206,000 to a Bragg Creek veterinarian’s innovative dog contraceptive project, which helps control the free-roaming dog over-population in Canadian First Nations communities.
Since 2009, the Dogs with No Names (DWNN) project, founded by Bragg Creek veterinarian Judith Sampson-French, has implanted contraceptives into female dogs on the Tsuu T’ina, Eden Valley and Siksika First Nations communities of Alberta.
Initially, Sampson-French funded the project by selling her Lotus Lines pearl collection online, hosting an annual fundraiser in Bragg Creek, as well as through donations from Bragg Creek and area residents and businesses.
With this sizable grant from PetSmart Charities of Canada to Dogs with No Names, Sampson-French and her team will now take their contraceptive project to the town of Moosonee, and First Nations communities located in the James Bay and Hudson Bay regions of Northern Ontario.
The program will provide implanted contraception for free-roaming female dogs, as well as vaccinations, microchips and de-worming for both male and female dogs in those Northern Ontario communities.
Bryan Kortis, PetSmart Charities of Canada program manager, learned about the issue of free-roaming dogs from a First Nations chief in Northern Ontario, who spoke about his desire to deal with his community’s dog over-population in a humane way.
“The chief’s personal passion to break the cycle of people getting hurt, and using lethal control on the dogs, really resonated with us,” said Kortis. “As a funder of animal welfare, PetSmart Charities of Canada knew we could help.”
“We also believe that this project can be a successful model to help many other communities.”
According to area resident Dawna Lee, in Spring 2013, the Innu First Nation of Sheshatshiu, Labrador, invited Sampson-French and her team to help them solve their community’s dog over-population.
“Residents were concerned about the amount of breeding dogs in the community and were looking for an immediate and humane approach,” said Lee. “For five days, Dr. Sampson-French’s team, along with Sheshatshiu volunteers, travelled door-to-door in a mobile unit administering the birth control shot to female dogs and offering micro-chipping and vaccinations to all dogs.”
Lee said Sheshatshiu changed overnight in terms of the amount of aggressive dogs in the community.
“Since the female dogs were no longer going into heat, the male dogs no longer had reason to be aggressive,” said Lee. “Six months later, when I did followup interviews with the owners of female dogs, they reported relief that they didn’t have eight or more male dogs parked on their doorstep waiting to ambush a female dog in heat.”
“The community became a much safer place to walk around in, with regards to free-roaming dogs, and people also took pride in the care of their dogs.”
Since implementing the DWNN program, the Sheshatshiu Innu Band council has moved forward with its dog population control agenda, said Lee.
This past summer, a mobile spay veterinarian clinic came to the community to offer free spay and neutering.
“The general consensus of our dog owners was that they felt they didn’t want their female dogs to experience another “heat” so they decided to spay them,” said Lee. “Many of the female dogs that had received the Dogs with No Names birth control are now spayed.”
“The Dogs with No Names program acted as a springboard for the community to begin a population control program, and it is continuing to achieve its’ goals.”
DWNN has partnered with the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and the Weeneebayko Area Health Authority (WAHA) to administer the program in Ontario, which Sampson-French said was the next stepping-stone in the application of a humane and sustainable solution for dog population control and a blueprint to be adapted to other areas.
As the chair and secretary of the Stray Dogs Sub-Working Group under the WAHA Public Health Working Group, the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care coordinates the partnership between WAHA, Health Canada, Porcupine Public Health Unit and DWNN, which has developed the Ontario DWNN project framework, according to Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care spokesperson David Jensen.
Jensen said dog overpopulation in Ontario’s remote and First Nations communities has been a growing concern for the ministry, along with many First Nations communities, from both a public health and a community safety perspective.
“The DWNN project is a unique opportunity to bring together federal, provincial, local and First Nations partners to provide an innovative and integrated approach to a significant public health issue in the James and Hudson Bay region,” said Jensen. “The primary focus is to develop a sustainable dog control and vaccination program in order to protect the health of community members and promote security for the populations within the region.”
Jensen said the lack of local veterinary infrastructure and access to veterinary services makes standard, surgical approaches to dog population control, such as spaying and neutering, unsustainable and impractical in Ontario’s remote northern regions.
“Based on the positive results reported by the Province of Newfoundland-Labrador from its 2013 DWNN project, the ministry and WAHA identified DWNN’s innovative method of using contraceptive implants in female dogs as an appropriate pilot project for alternative methods of dog population control in the region,” said Jensen. “While the veterinary aspects of the program are being funded by PetSmart Charities of Canada, the ministry and its public health partner agencies are contributing resources to build local community awareness of the importance of maintaining healthy and sustainable dog populations in the region for public health and community safety.”
Sampson-French and her team plan to travel from Alberta to the James and Hudson Bay area community four times to administer the program, beginning in June 2015.
