Mayor calls on pet owners in Inuvik, N.W.T., to take more responsibility after 2 loose dogs killed by vehicle

The mayor of Inuvik, N.W.T., is calling on residents to take more responsibility for their pets after a pair of dogs were struck and killed by a vehicle earlier this week.

The town issued a statement Monday saying RCMP and municipal enforcement officers had responded to a grisly scene early that morning. Two dogs were found dead after being hit in an intersection, the town said, after what was believed to be a fight between two male dogs over a female in heat. 

Bylaw officers were also searching for a large white husky-shepherd mix dog that might have been injured in the incident, the town said. 

"All these loose dogs at one time were owned by somebody. Some of them still are, and they just let them run, run loose," said Mayor Clarence Wood.

Wood doesn't believe dogs are any bigger of a problem in Inuvik than they've been in the past two decades. But, he said, the issue is more visible now because the local pound can't send dogs south for adoption as easily.

That's because shelters in the South, like Inuvik's pound, are full. 

Wood also said part of the problem is dogs aren't registered with the local pound in Inuvik.

"So when they're picked up, we have no idea who they belong to. They sit in the pound and the owners obviously don't come and get them." 

What people can do to help ease the town's dog problem, he said, is "be more responsible pet owners, quite frankly." 

That means not letting them run loose, and getting them licensed.

Wood also recently posted on an Inuvik Facebook group defending the role the town's municipal enforcement officers play in managing stray and loose dogs. He said he felt compelled to do so, after seeing "posts critical of bylaw officers on social media. 

"The residents of Inuvik are extremely lucky that we have two competent and caring individuals doing this job," Wood wrote in his post, calling their work a thankless job. "It is very difficult, sometimes impossible to track down and catch a stray dog who doesn't want to be caught, who may be vicious or just leery of strangers. Yet bylaw constantly faces these situations."

Wood added that bylaw fields calls at all hours of the day about stray dogs, and often when they reach a location, the animals are nowhere to be found. 

"Please look after your dogs and remember bylaw officers are people too, your friends, your neighbours and your family. Treat them with respect and realize [picking up stray] dogs are only part of the many jobs they do."