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Hundreds of tri-community animals rescued by NAR recently

Nov 23, 2018 | 4:00 PM

According to information supplied by Northern Animal Rescue (NAR) to La Ronge Council, the organization has accepted nearly 350 animals between January and October 2018.

The statistics show out of 344 animals, 233 came from the immediate area including La Ronge, Air Ronge and local Lac La Ronge Indian Band reserves. The band accounted for 64 per cent of local strays with 96 puppies, 28 dogs, 18 kittens and eight cats, followed by La Ronge with 16 per cent including 24 puppies, 16 kittens, 10 dogs and five cats. In Air Ronge, NAR rescued 12 dogs, 10 kittens, four puppies and two cats.

“It’s just people who bring in pets or buy their child a pet, then they lose interest and they become strays,” Band Coun. Ann Ratt said. “Then the stray will mate with another stray and that’s where all these dogs are coming from.”

In recent months, there’s been several instances of band members reporting packs of dogs on local reserves, which could present a danger to children in the area. When residents see such dogs, Ratt stressed they should call animal control officer Andrew Hastings with the band’s public works departments to impound them. Like Air Ronge, the dogs are kept for 72 hours before they’re released to NAR if there’s space.

While the band doesn’t have a formal agreement with NAR like the Town of La Ronge, Ratt said the LLRIB pays $20 for every animal surrendered to NAR. She also noted it’s only a few people who are irresponsible pet owners, which leads to such situations.

“I’m hoping people will become responsible pet owners,” Ratt said.

Air Ronge also doesn’t have a formal agreement with NAR, but Deputy-Mayor Julie Baschuk said the municipality made donations to the organization in the past. She said village workers contact NAR when animals have been impounded for more than three days because they could be destroyed.

“We really don’t want to see that worse case scenario occur,” Baschuk said. “We encourage owners each year when licensing … to also submit a photo of the dog as we keep a binder of all licensed animals in an effort to reconnect pets if they get loose.”

The remaining animals rescued by NAR include 33 from Sucker River, 26 from Hall Lake, 19 from Stanley Mission and nine from Southend. An additional 24 came from other communities or sources.

As the statistics in this article weren’t revealed by NAR to Air Ronge and LLRIB councils before being shared by larongeNOW, the rescue group declined to comment at this time. In an email, NAR chairperson Genevieve Candelora explained the organization continues to work on the statistics as they are preliminary numbers and aren’t entirely up to date.  

 

derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno