- Stray dogs pose problem in remote Alaska communities - May 9, 2018
Rural Alaskan communities struggle with the stray dog population due to lack of veterinary care in bush villages which has led to dogs being shot and killed for a bounty given to residents for any stray dog outside without a lead. Many residents oppose this open bounty for dogs and incidents have occured where dogs who were not stray were shot anyways.
The problem lies in a lack of veterinarian services in bush Alaska. Stray dogs are seldom spayed or neutered contributing to overpopulation through uncontrolled breeding.
In the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta where approximately 25,000 people live throughout smaller villages there is only one vet who flies into the hub, Bethel each month. It can be expensive to fly to Bethel with a dog with plane tickets into Bethel costing upwards of $300. There are few options when it comes to getting vet care for the dogs in these villages. Flying to Bethel, or any larger city is an expensive option and many airlines won’t fly dogs that haven’t had a health check up and are not up to date on vaccines.
Groups like Bethel Friends of Canines are working to collect strays in villages and take in dogs that are no longer wanted. The group rescues dogs not only in Bethel, but villages all over the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region. A volunteer for the group Maureen Stanislaus said, “We coordinate with the people in villages who contact us about sending stray and unwanted dogs in and give them a kennel to get the dogs to Bethel.’ Her group is at full capacity a lot of the time and struggle to find new homes or foster homes for the ones that come in, says Stanislaus.
North Carolina State University has a Christian vet mission that works with villages to spay and neuter dogs. The group is a mission group and will vaccinate, spay and neuter dogs for free. However, Daniel Fortune, an Alakanuk resident says that the group doesn’t come every year and if they do, it’s only once a year. Fortune said, “It’s a guessing game on whether or not we’re going to get vet services. This past year they didn’t come and I had to fly to Anchorage for one of my dogs to be neutered.’
Walk down the streets of many rural Alaska villages and you’ll be greeted by numerous stray and unaccounted for dogs wandering around. Village Public Safety Officer of Hooper Bay, Dillon Joseph said, “No one in the village likes shooting dogs but it has to be done,’ in response to the stray dog situation of Hooper Bay and many other villages alike. Joseph said that they will open up a 24-hour time slot during which he said any loose or stray dog can be shot and residents can collect a bounty of $15 per tail. Joseph also said that the stray dogs can form packs and chase vehicles in the road as well as hurt residents. “Just last year we had a few cases of stray dogs who got bit by rabid foxes and were running around the village.’ Though no residents were harmed from the presence of rabid dogs. 
Stray dogs pose outside of Hooper Bay School.
