A pair of dogs are recovering after being rescued from the Melfort landfill last weekend.
A Facebook post on Friday from a concerned citizen brought the issue of the abandoned dogs to the attention of the public.
Brad Schaerer told northeastNOW he noticed the dogs as well as some puppies while he was dumping some garbage on Thursday.
“We noticed dogs barking at us with no one with them,” Schaerer said. “We looked around and noticed there were two dogs, the rotty/shepherd mix and then the female mix(collie).”
According to Schaerer, when the dogs would stop barking, the sound of baby puppies could be heard.
“I noticed the female was curled up, when she moved, I saw and heard at least two, maybe three [puppies],” Schaerer said.
Upon seeing the dogs and puppies, he said he drove to the gate to report the sighting to which the worker said he had already been informed of the dogs being there.
“The guy at the gate told me the city was getting in touch with someone to capture them,” Schaerer said. “I left thinking that the city had someone coming.”
Brenda Orr operates a cat rescue in the city and after learning the dogs were at the dump and in the extremely cold weather, she couldn’t just do nothing.
Animal control and the North East SPCA manager were contacted by Orr and both were unaware of the situation.
Orr said she then contacted the after-hours number for the city on Saturday night and eventually access to the landfill was granted but just for a short while on Sunday.
With help from other concerned individuals, traps, blankets, straw and food was gathered to get the dogs or feed them at the very least.
It wasn’t until into Monday that the female dog was finally coaxed by Dawn Quinn into coming out of hiding to be carried to warmth. Later in the day, the male dog was also rescued from the dump.
“The dogs are now safe in care with Dawn, our rescue angel foster mom,” Orr said. “The mama dog was checked out earlier Tuesday and both dogs are doing well.”
Both dogs are in a safe warm foster home. (Facebook/Dawn Quinn)In the check-up with the vet, it was discovered that the female dog, who is now named Raven, suffered a previous injury which causes her head to fall slightly to the right side and does not have mobility to in her neck to turn to the left. She is approximately one and a half years old.
The male dog, now called Wren, is about six to nine months old.
Unfortunately, while the puppies may have been spotted at the landfill late last week, there have been no puppies, or remnants of puppies, located.
“Greenland Waste needs to check their bins before hauling and dumping,” Orr said. “If there are live animals then it needs to be reported to the city and dealt with accordingly.”
Greenland Waste policy states that it is their policy for any animals brought in with a load are to be reported to the worker at the weigh scale.
Orr hopes the incident can serve as a lesson before something like this happens again.
“The City of Melfort also needs to implement a plan of action and delegate duties to personnel if such an instance arises again, and it will,” Orr said. “This is the third time this winter that dogs have been dumped.”
Orr would like to see concerned citizens write letters to council regarding the implementation of a plan to address the issue of who’s responsibility the dump is.
“We need to do better than this,” Orr said.
Another message Orr wants to get out is to always help someone because you may be the only one who does.
northeastNOW asked the NESPCA if more could have been done from their standpoint.
Manager of the NESPCA Christina Baptist said their mission promotes quality of life, responsible stewardship, successful adoptions and education.
“The NESPCA is a shelter and does not employ an animal control officer,” Baptist said. “We were distressed to learn of the situation at the Melfort landfill over the holidays, and the cold temperatures that the dogs had to endure.”
In an emergency, the shelter can accept animals 24/7 but in this case with the landfill being closed to the public, as well as only finding out about the dogs being there much later on, staff was limited to what they could do.
“Had the landfill been open, the animal control officer would have been called, the animals caught and placed in the shelter under quarantine,” Baptist said. “We always regret the loss of life of any animals and believe that the correct measures will be put in place for emergency situations.”
Mayor of Melfort Glenn George said he was unaware of the situation as it was happening but is proud of the community for coming through for the animals.
“I’m happy that the people that were involved did what they did and I was happy that the city reacted the way we did,” George said. “That is one reason I am proud to live in Melfort because people pitch in and do what they have to do.”
He added that procedures will be looked at by council in the new year but that doesn’t mean anything will be changed immediately. There are processes that will need to be followed as per any change that needs to happen within the city.
“There are liability issues that come with opening the dump and we can’t just let people in and let them stay there so I think the city went above and beyond in this situation,” George said. “There are so many moving parts with this so it is hard to say right now until we have totally investigated it.”
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angie.rolheiser@pattisonmedia.com
On Twitter: @Angie_Rolheiser
