Would You Hunt Dog

[Noel]

I realize by your avatar and your location you might not have a clue about the way it is in northern Sask (that's the one in the middle of the country with the staight sides!) In alot of these communities dogs out number cars.
Also this young boy spent time in our community and he was a special little guy. So a crass, thoughtless remark like yours I take a bit of offense to. Maybe because it was closer to me than you, or maybe because I am a father and have kids of my own.
I might be over reacting but when you know a bit more of the situation and some of the people that were part of this little guys life it makes you take it a little more seriously.

I can relate with you quite close actually. When I was a toddler Mom set me down at my Grandparents with my toys. For some reason when everyone's back was turned Grampa's Blue Healer decided it didn't like me. When the fam came running to my screams they found the dog with my head in it's mouth. It had never acted out of character before but that mattered little to Grampa. I doubt it lived another ten minutes after that.

Lucky for me I just had bruising all over my bald little head. I could have turned out much uglier than I already did.

As for my kids, any time we get around a mutt that acts threatening you sure get that protective spirit. No one but a parent could understand.

 

[ikedaboy]

yes and for cats, crows, coons...etc

 

[sigtactical]

No , just tired of idiot people and having to clean up their messes just because they are too stupid to take care of themselves .

A few of those dogs are worth " rescueing " all depends if you are a cat or a dog person I guess ....

I never said they should ban dogs , just ban the ignorat " people " from having them...

Things may have gotten so far out of hand that you have to cull the dogs however unless you fix the people the problem will just come back ...

+1. we know there's a class of poeples who dont mind what they're shooting at, but this time it has nothing to see with wolfs or yotes...it has to see with stupid poeples who dont care about their family pets...shame on them, they should be on the blacklist of irresponsible poeples who have no more rights to ''keep'' dogs.

 

[BUSHMAN79]

I can relate with you quite close actually. When I was a toddler Mom set me down at my Grandparents with my toys. For some reason when everyone's back was turned Grampa's Blue Healer decided it didn't like me. When the fam came running to my screams they found the dog with my head in it's mouth. It had never acted out of character before but that mattered little to Grampa. I doubt it lived another ten minutes after that.

Lucky for me I just had bruising all over my bald little head. I could have turned out much uglier than I already did.

As for my kids, any time we get around a mutt that acts threatening you sure get that protective spirit. No one but a parent could understand.

A similar incident here a couple of years ago, someone left their pet sled dog tied up outside while they went into the store. The dog took down a passing toddler, and basically ripped his face off. You should have heard the excuses! "The kid had food on his face, puppy was just trying to lick it off!" As far as I know, that dog is still at large. That dog was a pet, imagine what a wild pack of similar dogs could do to a family, camping in the woods. There is, of course, a larger calibre solution...

 

[pie1]

If I ate if after, yes

 

[shortandlong]

A similar incident here a couple of years ago, someone left their pet sled dog tied up outside while they went into the store. The dog took down a passing toddler, and basically ripped his face off. You should have heard the excuses!

whoa!

thats horrible

 

[rhshooter]

Trying to make a point ... I have no problem with splattering the brains of an animal all over the place and personally love turning gophers inside out however the child would not have been hurt if the population of dogs were controlled in the first place ...
Oh and why were the dogs running loose ? I have to have mine on a leash was it perhaps because it was on a reserve and they don't have to follow the same laws as every one else ?

Are we talking about real feral dogs here or strays? If the dogs are feral (meaning they are truly wild animals, not raised by people this generation) then I would have no problem culling them. If this is a pack of strays that are starving because people stopped feeding them then I think animal welfare should be taking a hand in finding the responsible people and charging them with neglect.

By the way, if I were to be the person hired to do this cull I suspect I would go with poisoned baits if this were legal. If I want to kill the whole pack I think this would be more effective than a rifle or shotgun. I have never done anything like this though so this is all just theoretical...

Jeff

 

[bluemike807]

I grew up in Victoria, Australia where, for a long time now, there's been a problem with feral domesticated animals. Down there they don't have the predatory ecological niches we do (Coyotes and other canids) so when dumb families turn Rover loose on the side of a country road he's got carte blanche to get up to all sorts of mischief. Growing up most of the dog attacks I heard about were due to idiot yobbos (read: Australian Rednecks) with their pitbulls or rottweilers getting out of hand, but there was almost always news about wildlife being ravaged by feral cats and dogs.

I've been back in Canada 10 years now, and maybe the legislation down there has changed, but at the time you could do whatever you pleased to any animal that was obviously feral. It was usually easy to tell - the cats tended to check in at 20+ pounds (they ate well on the local wildlife) and the dogs proportionately larger as well.

 

[mudbug]

Lots of people on hear have mentioned animal welfare or the spca or the humane shelter should step in and look after these dogs. My wife was involved with setting up the humane shelter in Meadow Lake years ago and this would be the closest one to the town with the dog problem and we are over 3 hrs away.. Our little town does not have the resources to handle this many dogs or the funding to go and get them spay and neuture them feed them and house them hoping to have sombody rescue them and give them a good home. I realize this would be the best solution but it isn't gonna happen!

 

[X-man]

Trying to make a point ... I have no problem with splattering the brains of an animal all over the place and personally love turning gophers inside out however the child would not have been hurt if the population of dogs were controlled in the first place ...
Oh and why were the dogs running loose ? I have to have mine on a leash was it perhaps because it was on a reserve and they don't have to follow the same laws as every one else ?

The reality of the situation is that with all the soci-economic problems many first nations reserves and communities have, many residents can barely take care of their kids, let alone ensure that their dogs are spayed or neutered. Sadly, oftentimes even the kids aren't properly cared for. In a lot of cases, these wild, feral or semi-feral dog packs are also sick, with distemper widely found amongst them, along with parasites and occasional outbreaks of rabies.

Unfortunately, the only practical solution is to cull the unwanted dogs to keep kids safe and, in many cases, it is a kindness to the dogs who often suffer from starvation, malnutrition and illness. I've got three Labs & three Beagles, so I'm definitely a "dog" person but even I see this as the only solution. You aren't going to solve long-standing social problems unilaterally, so you are going to continue to see dogs neglected and turn feral to survive. As such, there is but one option available, a cull.

 

[Boomer]

A similar incident here a couple of years ago, someone left their pet sled dog tied up outside while they went into the store. The dog took down a passing toddler, and basically ripped his face off.

Sled dogs are not pets! Where were the toddler's parents, and what were they thinking? Why was he/she allowed to go near the dogs? That was a tragedy waiting to happen.

 

[209jones]

The rez dogs are a little different, they can be rescued if they are picked up young enough.
But, that is a tough call. If they are over a year old they have probably lived in a pack,hunted to eat and tried to breed, been abused by people,beaten up by other dogs, and learned to survive on their own instincts--that kind of dog can probably be tamed to reason, but likely not house trained, and absolutely cannot be trusted in many environments, wild instincts will prevail.
We don't see too much of that in North America, many people from Asia, Africa, Pacific countries are dead afraid of dogs because of encounters with semi-wild versions that roam freely over there. They will cross the street if they see a dog coming.
The best solution for these dogs, is put them down. I hate doing it, but, it has to be done. Definitely a rotten job.
Bait them out of the community, a 22 will do the job nicely, but, have a shotgun handy.
They can be a lot harder to hit than you might think, and some can actually be nasty when wounded, make damn sure they are dead before touching.