The Saddle Lake Cree Nation has decided to take steps to ensure that an ugly incident doesn’t repeat itself. The nation announced recently that certain breeds of dogs will require either spaying or neutering to be allowed. Evelyn Johnston is Health Director for Saddle Lake, she says the decision has a tragic history around it.
“In December of 2017, we had a serious dog attack on a young boy leaving him disfigured and pretty well disabled so as a result of that we decided to do something abut it. We’ve been working with the Alberta Spay/Neuter Task Force since 2013.”
The nation is setting up for a clinic the public can attend on April 13th to the 15th in Saddle Lake Arena. Johnston says these clinics aren’t new, and are usually well attended.
“We’ve had five of them since 2013 and we’re having another one on April 13th to the 15th and it’ll be at the Saddle Lake Arena. We have a bunch of volunteers come out and it’s usually really well attended by the community. They’re really thankful to have a place to bring the animals.”
Johnston says a proposal in the works for a Saddle Lake Animal Management program. She says feedback to the control steps has been positive.