CANADA -- The chief of the Canoe Lake First Nation is baffled at the recent death of a ten-year-old by a pack of dogs, and is looking at community effort in hopes of controlling dangerous dogs in the future.
"We as the leaders of the community, we're kind of shocked that this has happened," said Canoe Lake Chief Guy Lariviere. "We don't know why dogs would do that.... But we're trying to deal with it in our community and make sure something like that doesn't happen again."
The young boy, Keith Iron, was walking to his cousin's house for a visit at 11:30am on January 30 when a pack of three dogs attacked him. There were no witnesses of the attack but a short while later he was found laying on the ground mauled to death.
According to Chief Lariviere, the distance Keith was walking was equal to half a city block.
"(The dogs) were domestic dogs, they were owned, they weren't a wild pack. There's no explanation as to why those dogs went after the boy," Chief Lariviere said.
Upon the RCMP's arrival at the scene to investigate, the three dogs ran away, but Chief Lariviere was with the RCMP and others when the dogs returned and were shot.
"(The police) were looking at all options, they were looking at what could have all possibly happened and what the circumstances were. I'm not sure what their findings were," Chief Lariviere said about the ongoing investigation.
The three dogs belonged to different individuals in the community and no charges have been laid. A coroner's report is being undertaken and will be released once it is done.
"I feel responsible," said Chief Lariviere. "And so do the owners of the dogs. The leadership is responsible because we should have done something more, I don't know what. We did what we thought was best at the time."
He said the Chief and council had a bylaw in place for the past two years to deal with stray dogs and dogs deemed dangerous. However, there is a problem in enforcing that bylaw.
"When there's any stray dogs around, our bylaw states that we should--they have to be gotten rid of--in a humane way as possible as we can," Chief Lariviere said.
"(When) people have dogs, that people think (are) dangerous we request that they be tied up. And I think some of those dogs that were there, they had been tied up before, because people had complained they were aggressive."
At the time the bylaw was being put in place two years ago, Chief Lariviere approached the RCMP and asked if there was any way they could help enforce the sanctions on dangerous dogs. Although the police wanted to help they said their hands were tied because it was a matter of the municipal government, in this case the Chief and council.
"They tried to help, but they don't have anything in the books to help," said Lariviere, adding that there is a problem in how dangerous dogs are identified simply by word-of-mouth and uninvestigated complaints. There are also insufficient funds to pay for a dog-catcher and people get mad when one is hired and tries to do the job.
"Some of the dog owners are not very happy when the dog catcher is walking by or threatens to do something about their dog," Chief Lariviere said.
As for what the leadership will do now to handle the dog problem, the chief said they will look at how the bylaw can be enforced and also at the possibility of building community awareness on dog ownership.
To update the dog bylaw, it has to be first approved by the band, than by the provincial Indian Affairs office and finally the federal office in Ottawa.
"We're going to have to toss that around," Chief Lariviere said. "It has to be a community effort and I think that's what we're going to put on our bylaw. All our community has to do that policing."
Soon after the incident, therapists from Health Canada and the Meadow Lake Tribal Council were on hand to offer support and counseling to family and community members.
"It's just one of those things that just happened, it could happen anywhere," Chief Lariviere said. "I think people realize that."
(Saskatechewan Sage - February 1, 2010)
