Spilyay Tymoo, W3rro Springs, Oregon
J3jtiuy 22, 2004
Stray dog population takes toll
By D. "Bing" Bingham
Spilytiy Tymoo
It starts like this: On a cold
February night a stray female
dog conies into heat. The chemi
cal signal is given and she has
no problem finding interested
males. Three months later a lit
ter of puppies is born.
And this female isn't the only
one having puppies. No one
knows how many stray dogs are
on the reservation.
"We have a lot of dogs that
are strays," says Nancy Collins,
Tribal Sanitarian. "People don't
really own them, they may feed
them occasionally. They may
stay at somebody's place, but the
people don't really own them,
so there's no real responsibility
to see the dog is taken care of."
; Dog over-population is a
problem. It costs the commu
nity real dollars:
According to former OSU
Extension Agent Bob Pawelek,
in 1996 dog damage to livestock
on the reservation reached an
all-time high of $87,000. Since
then the figures have settled to
between $15,000 to 20,000
yearly.
And dog over-population
takes a toll on the community
when people become afraid of
dogs. "I've had community
people tell me they used to walk
in the evening with their hus
bands other family members or
just a friend down the road," said
Collins. "But they don't do that
anymore because they're afraid
of the dogs."
Afraid for good reason it
seems.
In 2001 Warm Springs had
five times the national average
for dog bites. And that seems to
be the tip of the iceberg: many
dog bites aren't repotted, espe
cially when they happen on a
weekend. To date, though, no
bite has been fatal.
But there have been serious
attacks, such as the one against
a young West 1 lills boy, who was
mauled by a pitbull. He's sched
uled for reconstructive surgery
soon.
"When we get new people at
the clinic," says Collins, "I tell
them if they are walkers or jog
gers, they should carry a stick
with them when they go out, to
have something to hand the dog
besides their arm."
The number of dog bites on
the reservation held steady in
the low to mid twenties per year
Mad cow
By D. "Bing" Bingham
Spilyay Tymoo
Just before Christmas the
U.S. Department of Agriculture
announced the first confirmed
case of Bovine Spongiform
Encephalopathy - mad cow dis
ease - in the country. Immedi
ately, nations around the world
placed an embargo on U.S. beef,
and the prices plummeted.
The offending cow turned
out to be a 6 and 12-year-old
from a dairy in Canada. She was
born before the ban of feeding
cattle protein to other cattle.
To date there has been no
other confirmed case of mad
cow disease in or around the U.S.
Is the reservation affected by
mad cow disease? Well, yes and
not likely.
The cattle prices are down
and probably will stay that way
for a while. But Clint Jacks,
OSU Extension Agent for
Advertise
on the
reservation -
Call the Spilyay
553-3274.
through the mid nineties. Dur
ing 1997 and 1998 a dog catcher
was hired by the tribes and the
number of bites dropped to five
and fourteen, respectively.
The dog catcher position was
closed in 1998. For the next
three years the number of dog
bites bounced up into the low
30s per year. The complaints
started rolling in. Kaipo Akaka,
environmental health technician,
was detailed to the job.
"Two springs ago I could
walk around and see females
sitting on litters all over, on side
walks, in back of the police sta
tion," he says. "I was sticking
dogs in the kennel, and there's a
mother with a litter right next
door."
Akaka went to work on the
dog problem. "When I saw these
dogs around I called all over to
see who would take them," he
says. "I called the Madras ani
mal shelter.. They said no. I called
Bend, they said, 'Try Portland.'
I called Pordand, We've survived
off the Portland animal shelter.
They say, 'If you can get them
to us, we'll take 'em."
Akaka drove the dogs to the
Portland Animal Shelter that
night, "They were biters," he
says, "but they took them. They
had to put them down."
From that point Akaka dug
into the reservation dog prob
lem. One of his tools was Ma
dras Animal Hospital. He used
them to spay, neuter and vacci
nate the dogs.
"I think we're pushing about
400 dogs that we've spayed or
neutered from the reservation
in the last two years," says Jerud
Rhen, veterinarian from Madras
Animal Hospital."
He continues, "Because of
what Nancy and Kaipo are do
ing, I see fewer" and fewer stray
dogs brought in. In my mind the
program they have been run
ning - taking the stray dogs in
to get spayed, neutered and vac
cinated, then trying to get them
shipped to a separate area - has
really helped."
But it isn't without cost. The
average spay or neuter per dog
costs between $90-100. While
the average minor surgery costs
between $350-400 per animal.
The money doesn't all come
out of the tribe's or the owner's
pocket. There's the Daisy Fund.
The Daisy fund was created
by an elderly Central Oregon
woman who passed on her es-
not likely a problem here
Jefferson County, doesn't think
the prices will be as bad as ev
erybody expects.
"The confidence the Ameri
can consumer has in the beef
industry is beginning to show,"
he says. "There has been a drop
in beef production, but I don't
think it's going to be as huge as
a lot of people thought."
He feels there's a reason why
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Stray dog suffering from mange.
"If vou 've ever had
J yH ie eHr "aa
Something that just itched
and itched and itched,
that's what the dog feels
like 24 hours a day,
seven days a week."
Sanitarian Nancy Collins
tate to aid spaying and neuter
ing of local animals, the highest
priority being dogs on the res
ervation. The fund, which
spends approximately $28,000
annually, is administered by the
Deschutes County I lumane So
ciety. According to Maty Jo Deuel,
Jefferson County's representa
tive for the Daisy Fund, 258
dogs were funded in 2002, and
145 were funded in 2003. Of
those dogs, 76 percent and 47
percent, respectively, were from
the reservation.
But too many dogs on the
reservation create other prob
lems - like disease.
Dr. Rhen figures that first
year in 2001 he saw as many as
five cases of parvovirus a week,
and 85 to 90 percent of the
dogs were from the reservation.
These days he's down to one or
two per week during the sum
mer with about 50 percent com
ing from the reservation.
The cost of parvovirus can't
be measured in just dollars and
cents. Sometimes the cost is sen
timental. According to Nancy Collins:
"I have someone who brought
in a little border collie puppy that
came from his grandfather. It
had come to him before his
grandfather died. It was special
to him, but it had contracted
parvo and the puppy ended up
dying. That person lost a special
puppy that had been given to
him. For a kid losing a puppy is
consumers are showing some
confidence.
"The meat packing industry
has done a very good job of
voluntarily removing all the
tainted meat and tracing back
anything that was mixed with that
meat," he says.
Even though some of the
compromised meat ended up in
Oregon, Jacks feels the odds are
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ttmtk- Losin that doB to a
disease like parvo is hard. It's
not a nice disease. Its hard on
the animal, it's hard on every
body watching the anima. Basi
cally it just wastes away."
Parvovirus isn't the only dis
ease common on the reserva
tion because of dog over-population
- there's mange.
Mange is relatively easy to
treat. A small bottle of medi
cine will run about $125. But the
cost to the dog is much higher.
"If you've ever had some
thing that just itched and itched
and itched," says Collins. "That's
what the dog feels like 24 hours
a day, seven days a week. It's
horrible. They will itch them
selves raw. It's very uncomfort
able for the dog. I think the dog
pays the higher cost of having
mange."
There are all kinds of costs
to dog over-population on the
reservation. Part of the price is
being paid by other people,
"If any average dog were to
come in for a spay or neuter,
most of the time they come in
the morning and go home that
evening. And that's all we see of
them," says veterinarian Jered
Rhen. "Some of these reserva
tion dogs are borderline sick and
we decide we should try to help
them out a little bit. We will do
nate some medical supplies and
time to help the dogs out."
He continues, "When we see
reservation dogs, more often
than not, they're here for at least
two nights and sometimes three.
We spend an extra day or two
and give them some food, wa
ter and kennel time, trying to
help those dogs out."
Even Madras Animal I lospi
tal receptionist Phelecia
Arizmendi helps with the dona
tions. At one time she housed and
fed as many as 30 stray dogs
pretty high against anything like
that happening in Central Or
egon. Even so, he suggests it's a
good idea to remember that a
lot of imported beef is not as
closely checked as American
beef. "The beef we import is
the lower end products like ham
burger from Argentina and
other places," Jacks said.
on reservation
from the reservation at her
home while she worked to place
them, Another time she kept a
batch of puppies for four weeks.
When you ask her why, she
answers, "It's not the stray dog's
fault. I hate to put them out in
the wild, if we can find them a
home. Especially when they're
starving. I low can you just send
them out there with nothing?"
When Akaka was handed the
dog problem in 2001, dog bites
on the reservation were at an
all time high of 33 per year. It
took nearly all his time, but the
number of dog bites started to
decrease. Slowly at first 26 in
2002, then more quickly (13 in
2003.
"Kaipo was spending almost
his entire time working on dogs
and that doesn't count the five
or 10 percent that I was spend
ing on dogs," says Collins. "But
that's just one small program
that we do, and that can't be our
entire program. We can't afford
that much time spent on dogs."
According to his job descrip
tion, Akaka is supposed to spend
no more than 10 percent of his
time on dogs. "When we do 10
percent, we're not hitting hardly
anything," says Collins. "We're
doing the vaccination clinics,
we're doing some mange treat
ment, and we're not really do
ing a lot of spays and neuters.
A lot of the success of the pro-
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PRINTING
Tribal Business Cards
Business Forms
EnvelopesLetterheads
Raffle Tickets
aron
graphics &. promotions
Warm Springs
Presbyterian Church
Pastor Rick Ribeiro
Worship at P.O. Box 869
1 0 a.m. 1141 Warm Springs St. (campus)
Bible Wed. Warm Springs, OR 97761
at 7 p.m. (541)553-1237
"W'e're not collecting as
many strays to spay and
neuter. Well have more
puppies in the next six
months. "
Kaipo Akaka
gram has been because Kaipo
has spent that time. I le's put in
a lot of his own time and money.
That's a lot to ask of a person."
With tribal fiscal difficulties,
Akaka has been asked to cut
back on the amount of time he
spends handling dogs. "I've
worked myself into line with the
protocol," he says. "I close the
door and stay inside and do my
paperwork like I'm supposed
to."
And the results are showing.
As Akaka travels the reserva
tion, he can see the dog popula
tion growing again. "Vou can see
more dogs out there," he says.
"We're not collecting as many
strays to spay and neuter. We'll
have more puppies in the next
six months. You can see the re
sults." On a cold February night a
stray female dog will go into
heat. A chemical signal is given
and she has no trouble finding
interested male suitors. Three
months later another litter of
puppies is born. And then an
other, and another.
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