A number of dogs rescued from the Kenora area are in North Bay, ready to be taken to an Adopt-A-Thon event in Southern Ontario this coming weekend.
The North Bay and District Humane Society recently picked-up 22 dogs from Shoal Lake 39 First Nation in the Kenora District, near the Manitoba border.
Humane Society Executive Director, Daryl Vaillancourt explained that the First Nations community reached out to Beat the Heat Kenora to help with its stray dog problem. Beat the Heat is a registered charity which promotes 'Spay and Neuter Initiatives.' The charity in turn, made a request to the Ontario SPCA and its partners for assistance.
"We had the time and the resources, so a few of our staff went up with our vehicles to help out. Beat the Heat Kenora has a really good relationship with the Band and Council in that community," said Vaillancourt.
"They definitely had a stray dog challenge, but the community was not over-run with stray's. Some coastal communities can be over-run and then the dogs start to pack and you could have some real challenges that way, but not this one. They reached out for help and we were glad to be there."
It took us just under a week to drive to the location.
"They triage on site.This time we had a veterinarian who checked the dogs out medically, just a brief exam in the field. They make sure everything is okay, and of course we put them in a nice air conditioned vehicle, and brought them back here."
The veterinarian found the dogs to be in good health.
"We find the stray's we pick up in remote communities tend to be very happy and well socialized because they live with other dogs. They're good with humans too. Their behaviour around other dogs most of the time is really, really good, much better than some of the city dogs that we have," laughs Vaillancourt.
A couple of the dogs were treated for wood ticks, which are not the lime disease carrying variety. It is standard policy to deworm and vaccinate the animals upon their arrival to the humane society.
A group of puppies brought to North Bay was quickly adopted.
The remaining dogs will leave the city Wednesday, to be part of a large-scale Adopt-A-Thon in Stoney Creek starting the following day. As many as 200 dogs, from a handful of other humane societies, will be available for adoption over a four day period. Vaillancourt is confident all the dogs will be adopted by Sunday morning.
The Executive Director says the Humane Society is trying its best to help its partners at the Ontario SPCA do more of these types of rescues. He says animal control services are limited past the Highway 11/17 corridor. Some are fly-in communities, which magnifies the problem.
The North Bay and District Humane Society was involved in a similar large-scale rescue at a First Nations community in Northwestern Ontario last fall. At that time close to 80 Northern dogs were adopted at an event in Southern Ontario.
There is a lot of logistic's involved, but Vaillancourt expects another trip will be organized for September.
