Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Pack of dogs kill yet another child.

Relatives say a nine-year-old boy has been killed by a pack of dogs on a northern Saskatchewan reserve.

Police found the boy's body lying in a yard at the Canoe Lake First Nation about 11:30 a.m. on Saturday.

However, officials have not yet released his name or the cause of death.

Family members identify the boy as Keith Iron.

His uncle, Lawrence Iron, says Keith was attacked by the dogs while he was walking to his cousin's house.

Lawrence Iron says his nephew made the same walk every morning to play with his cousin.

�Close to the house, a bunch of dogs attacked him,� Mr. Iron said. �It's really hard, especially on the father. It's hard on me, too.�

RCMP are investigating.

Last fall, the village of Ile a la Crosse, Sask., hired a man to shoot loose dogs after six-year-old Shiloh Berscheid was badly bitten while playing outside in the village.

The little boy had huge gashes across his face and was flown to a Saskatoon hospital where plastic surgeons used 60 stitches to close the wounds.

The problem isn't isolated to Saskatchewan.

In 2006, five-year-old Lance Loonskin was mauled to death by a pack of dogs running loose on the North Tallcree reserve in northern Alberta. The attack was so vicious it left the youngster almost unrecognizable.

That same year in Manitoba, a two-year-old boy was mauled to death on the Hollow Water reserve and a three-year-old boy met the same fate on the Sayisi reserve.




I urge every hunter to shoot dogs running in packs in the wild when they get the chance. I've seen too many deer chewed apart or being pursued by dogs in my day. I've seen the chickens, ducks, sheep, calves, colts and jennies they've torn apart too. I think every dog running in a pack should all be shot on sight. Not just because they can and do kill people - but also, for what they do to game populations.

Tragic.

Confirms my thoughts in an earlier thread. Stray dogs that are packing together are a worse threat than about any wild animals. There's just very little fear of humans.

They are worse than wild animals.They don't fear man and need to be dealt with.I would like to find whoever turned them loose.

You really have to live up ther for a while to get a handle on this all to frequent,......VERY common occurrence.

BCB,.....WTH is "Canoe Nation",.....izzat some new name for a place in the Territories?

GTC

It was where I grew up in the early 70's as well. Hippies had their pets all summer but would hitchhike out of town before winter and leave their dogs figuring someone would take care of them. It was a real problem. We took care of them all right.

They should have listened to Bob Barker...

I spay and neuter all feral cats and dogs I see. For some reason none ever seem to survive the operation, though. Perhaps it's the tools I use.

Lovable, gentle family pets who as individuals will do no harm other than threatening or taking a playful nip at visitors can become something entirely different when they decide to meet up with their buddies and go looking for adventure. When we were in high school, a friend's family raised turkeys. After experiencing a few night-time massacres, they became vigilant. One day while they were roofing the barn, the "boys" decided on a little day-light fun with the turkeys. The end result was outraged neighbors who had to explain to their kids why good old Fang, Rip, and the rest wouldn't be coming home.

BCBrian:

About twenty years ago a child was killed by feral dogs in Colorado but I haven't heard of that happening recently. I endorse your recomendation to kill feral dogs and cats on site. As you say, not only because of the danger to humans but also because of the damage they do to other wildlife. Feral cats kill many birds, specially ground nesting birds, in their nests.

KC

I'm real vague, as to what defines the Great Northwest,....

with all due respect for "Native Rights", and NO disrespect to anyone implied.

BCB, and a few other hivernans are probly' way better equipped to comment,.......

but I get the sense that things are actually getting WORSE up there.

....and they never were all that damn good, to begin with.

GTC

crossfire;
The folks at Canoe Lake would be Woods Cree I believe.

My sister was a nurse, the only medic in town, and her husband taught school in a number of First Nations communities across northern Canada.

They ended up in places like Cumberland House, Saskatchewan which was also Woods Cree and Metis, Black Lake, Saskatchewan which was Dene and Lac La Biche, Alberta, which would be Woods or maybe northern Plains Cree. They also lived in Telegraph Creek, BC for a bit with the folks there being predominantly Tahltan.

I spent a fair bit of time in the Saskatchewan communities with them and can assure you the dog issue used to be much worse when there were fewer snow mobiles and each family had a dozen working dogs chained in the back yard.

For whatever reason, it might not have gotten into the news 30 years ago, but kids and adults were chewed up to the point of some dieing of their wounds back then too. My sister worked on them and still is wary of some breeds to this day because of what she experienced.

As a by the way, we are not allowed to legally shoot free running dogs without the permission of a Conservation Officer or another LEO.

Now most will not care one iota if you shoot the dogs and may privately think you did everyone a good turn, but if it is brought to their attention that you shot the dogs they might be required to charge you.

The short version is do not let anyone and I do mean anyone know if you happen to be there when a dog or pack of dogs succumbs to a mineral imbalance issue or an attack of lead poisoning. Without going into details, this I know as fact here in BC.

Hopefully that cleared up your questions about the First Nations group in the news story.

Regards,
Dwayne

Thanks Dwayne,

My frame of reference is couched and framed around the Mid to late '70s,.........anywhere's North of LaRonge was just stone NUTS than, you had to carry a big bloody club.

Can't say as I took the prevailance of the "Iron Dog Team" into account.

GTC

Dwayne - I stand corrected - and thank you for watching my "6". You are a good man! I'll remember the S.S.S. (shoot, shovel and shut-up) rule - from here on out.

It was "lead-poisoning" those dogs that I was watching succumbed to. I hate it when that happens!

Thanks for watching out for me!

I also blame the rabble trash owners who let their dogs run free because they are too lazy to control them or just plain abandon them. I raise sheep and use to loose a few to feral dogs before I got a pasture donkey. I don't take killing anything lightly, especially a domestic dog, some of them still have their collar on them. I give them and their owners a chance, but my donkey, Juanita, is less charitable and can make guacamole out of one in about 30 seconds.

A good donkey is worth it's weight in gold! Always have been - always will be.

You should see my wife's little ass!

Here I am - showing it off...

Story in my local paper today, about a museum with animal exhibits getting a donkey to keep the coyotes away. They say it's been working pretty well.

Don't think I've heard of donkeys being used this way before.

- Tom

In the mid 60s we had permission to shoot on a ranch (a few miles out of town)as long as the only dogs that survived our vis9its were those he owned and he showed us which ones he meant. As was the custom then ranchers hung coyotes on the fence near the entrance gate to their place (don't ask me, that is just what folks did). One rancher east of town did that with strays he picked off and somehow a photo of it made either "Look"
"Life" or Saturday Evening Post" it caused a row til he told folks from "the east" that wer aghast that if they did not like it they could pay for stock damages . . . things got quiet. Different times it was!

Somewhere in the late 70s 5 of us were tracking through the woods here in western middle TN and came upon a pack of feral dogs. At first they stood their ground and then fortunately ghosted into the woods. These were NOT dogs from a local house (none close). My hickory walking stick was looking puny there for a minute

Kill them. Kill them all. Kill them dead. If they pack up they will kill at some point. May not be your kid but it'll be something. I lost 9 goats and the $300 Pyrenees I put in there to protect them inside of a fenced enclosure. Ugly scene. It got worse when I got home & found it & realized that they were still inside the fence & couldn't get out. Five dogs, six rounds of .45. I called the three owners of the dogs and told them what had happened and that they would need to pick up their animals if they wanted them back. Nobody showed up. Called the sheriff's dept & dog warden to explain myself if they received a call about the incident. They did not. I live between two farms. One is a dairy and one a beef cattle operation. The going rule is that if a dog is seen chasing an animal it is shot. Period. Very few neighbors have dogs that wander. If they do it usually doesn't last long. Now don't get me wrong, I love dogs. I have had many since my childhood but if any one of mine packed up I'd hope that someone else did the same. I have eventually kinda gotten over the goat incident but still shudder to think about the fact that my daughter (7) plays outside daily & this all happened within 50 yards of the house. Kill them.

Heartbreaking to think of a nine year old boy being killed by dogs ..
That's the stuff horror movies are made of and the little fellow lived it .

crossfire;
You are quite welcome sir.

You mention La Ronge and it brings back memories. I lived for a bit in Nipawin and we fished there a few times and my wife and I spent our first Christmas together in '82 at a cabin there on the lake.

I spent the summer of '73 or maybe '74 at Black Lake, which is a fly in community sort of near Uranium City. The full moon was really something with 12-14 dogs in each back yard.

The dogs were short chained on stakes that didn't allow them to reach each other. The dogs were on short rations during the summer since they weren't really earning their keep and were fed fish, usually big suckers that were netted in the lake. Feeding time was interesting to say the least....

On the occasion when one got off its chain, a fight always ensued and sometimes the vanquished dog ended up supplementing the daily ration of the victor.

I suppose like a lot of things in life, if one doesn't experience it first hand it it tough to wrap your head around, nonetheless thats what I recall. Roger that on a club being required gear, a big club at that.

I don't really know what its like up there anymore, I think I haven't been up into that country since that Christmas of '82.

Have a good week sir.

Dwayne

We're not allowed to shoot wolves either..

I don't give a chit.. I see a pack of dogs runnin' and they'll be dodgin' hot lead until one of us gets lucky..