World and people

CALGARY, Alberta - A northern Canadian village
that has been overrun by stray dogs has offered a C$50
bounty on each one in an effort to cure the problem.

But residents are now having to keep an extra close watch
on the family pooch after some attempts to steal pets for the
cash reward, a village official said on Wednesday.

Officials in Rae-Edzo, twin communities of about 2,300
people in the Northwest Territories, are trying stop a scourge
of dog attacks on children and the elderly by giving residents
cash incentives to bring the stays in alive, Cecile Desjardins,
the town's acting senior administrator, said.

But it's had unintended consequences.

"We had one incident -- we have dog kennels just out of
town here, and a kid went over there and untied three of the
owner's dogs and dragged them over to the garage where we have
the dog pound and tried to cash in," Desjardins said.

"The owner went to feed his dogs and realized three of them
were missing. They got them in time."

Another youth untied a dog from the front porch of a house
and was about to take it to the pound when the owner ran out
yelling and managed to retrieve the pet, she said.

Officials estimate there are more than 50 stray dogs in as
many as seven packs. They have bitten dozens of residents, most
of whom have required a rabies shots.

Many residents are frightened to walk around town,
Desjardins said.

The bounty was recently raised from C$30 for each stray
brought in, after town workers found the canines were often too
cagey to catch.

"The funny thing is, those darn dogs, they know the company
vehicles, and when they see them they run the other way. So
that's why the community people have been hauling the dogs in
as they see them," she said.

Thirteen dogs were euthanized in June.

# posted by Mike @ 11:17 PM