Tuktoyaktuk woman calls for bylaw changes after two dogs shot

A woman from Tuktoyaktuk is calling for change after she said two of her dogs were killed by a bylaw officer.

Chukita Gruben said she lost her first dog, Hades, roughly one year ago in the hamlet. Her other dog, Steel, was shot on Friday. 

"It feels like I just keep getting new pets each time, just to raise them to be killed,"  Gruben said. 

The German Shepherds were brothers.

They were like my best friends.- Chukita Gruben

She said both dogs got off their leashes and ran loose in the hamlet. If this happens, a bylaw officer is called and can potentially shoot them.

"I wind up with no dogs," Gruben said. "And it just really blows me away that they can just kill a dog."

She said on Friday she heard rumours that the bylaw officer had been called to kill a dog. However, she didn't think it was Steel because she had left the 2-year-old dog tethered at home.

Then her mother called to say Steel had escaped. 

"My heart started yanking," Gruben said, adding she tried to call the bylaw officer, but couldn't reach him.

Gruben said she was driving around the hamlet with her father trying to find Steel, when she found the bylaw officer. He informed her Steel had been shot and was now at the dump.

"They were like my best friends."

Gruben alleges the bylaw officer shot Steel five times, and she's concerned he suffered.

What the bylaw says 

The bylaw dates back to 1996 and outlines different situations of when a dog is considered to be running at large.

But Gruben believes the interpretation of the bylaw is too loose.

The bylaw states the officer "will make every reasonable effort to inform the owner of the dog, if the owner is known to the officer."

However, the bylaw also says an officer can "destroy the dog" if it finds one running at large and cannot locate the owner or doesn't know who the owner is.

Furthermore, an officer can destroy a dog if the owner has had a verbal warning about having a dog at large before.

Gruben said she made an effort to introduce her dogs to other residents around town, because she wanted people to know they were friendly.

Call for alternatives 

Gruben wants to change the bylaw so there are options aside from death to deal with dogs that seem to be running at large. 

She plans to bring a letter to council.

She would like the bylaw officers to give the owners a chance to retrieve their dogs, and said there is an old holding pen at the dump that officers could consider using.

She has suggested that a dog could be held for up to 24 hours, so the owner could retrieve it.

"[The dump] is gross," said Gruben. "But it's better to find your dog there alive, than to find it dead."

Futhermore, she said the bylaw should include a criteria on how to destroy a dog, so animals don't suffer.

She said she won't get another dog until the hamlet changes its bylaws.

The hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk did not respond to CBC's request for comment.