Volunteer animal activist’s self-drafted animal by-law gains traction
By Colin Graf
CHIPPEWAS OF KETTLE AND STONY POINT FIRST NATION—The Kettle and Stony Point (KSP) First Nation may soon become one of Ontario’s earliest First Nation communities to start policing animal welfare. The local council is expected to pass a by-law later this year that will allow agents from the area’s Humane Society to enforce animal welfare regulations with the support of Anishinabek Police Services.
The new by-law is being drafted by local animal advocate Alison Bressette, who has volunteered for nine years in helping to improve living conditions for pets, and to help educate Kettle Pointers on proper care for their cats and dogs.
“Only a fragment” of First Nations across Canada have the services needed to help residents care for pets, she tells the Anishinabek News. Conditions have improved greatly at Kettle Point over the years, but social media show animals at other aboriginal communities being dumped off at garbage landfills, or left to freeze in winter, according to Bressette.
First Nations face barriers in Ontario to caring properly for pets, including the regulations of the Ontario Veterinary College, that have prevented vets from setting up clinics on First Nation territory. “Even mobile vet clinics are unable to go,” claims Bressette.
Despite this restriction, KSP has held “wellness clinics” for pets, run by veterinary students from the Ontario Veterinary College in Guelph, Ontario. The clinics, running for 6 years, allow members to bring their pets for a thorough check-up and get necessary shots as well. Pet health has greatly improved during those years, Bressette says. When they first started, over 50% of dogs were testing positive for heartworm, a frequently fatal infection. During the last clinic, only 2 or 3 dogs tested positive out of close to 200 pets examined, she states.
People have changed their attitudes toward animal abuse or neglect over the years, Bressette has noticed. Though she still gets calls from those who know she’ll drop everything and try to help if an animal could be in trouble, she’s noticed that today KSP residents are more likely to call someone out on social media if they think pets are not being cared for properly.
“They know a dog is not just a lawn ornament,” she said.
“When you help improve an animal’s life, it comes full circle and helps the community,” says Tammy Hornak, the vet who operates the only mobile clinic accredited to service First Nations in Ontario.
“If you improve the bond between human and animal, it can help public health,” Hornak tells the Anishinabek News from her office in Caledonia, Ontario. Protecting animals from illnesses such as rabies and parasites help protect people from those illnesses as well, she explains.
During the 10 years she has taken her mobile clinic to the Six Nations First Nation near her home, Hornak has seen a “huge change” in the condition of pets. The incidences of heartworm infection and skin conditions (such as mange) have declined greatly, and the living environment for both pets and people has improved, she states.
In visiting nine First Nations this year, many for the first time, Hornak hopes her work will help bring the same improvements and changes as seen in Six Nations First Nation and Kettle and Stony Point First Nation. She is working with students at the Veterinary College in order to promote this kind of mobile “grass-roots” veterinary work.
At KSP, the new by-law will give people a way to report an animal welfare problem and know that something will be done, says Bressette, founder of Aboriginal Community & Animal Advocacy Connection, a volunteer group. The law will specify what the proper treatment of animals is “based upon what the [KSP] society finds acceptable,” she explains. “It will cover everything that could possibly happen.”
Right now the local Anishinabek Police Service responds to complaints about a nuisance animal, such as a dog on the loose or barking continuously, but officers do not have the specialized training to recognize when an animal is in distress, Bressette says.
The by-law will allow agents from the Sarnia & District Humane Society to investigate complaints, and they will be accompanied by the local police, she explains. The new system will be a change, but efforts will be made to educate pet owners, rather than punish them. Pets will only be seized and/or charges laid as a last resort.
The bylaw is expected to go to the Band Administration for fine-tuning within two weeks, and then will be considered by Council.
Helping animals in need has been Alison Bressette’s “great passion”, she says, adding that it is helping her make up for the pets she saw as a child who were neglected or malnourished.
“I grew up in extreme poverty, and went days without eating,” she remembers. “I saw strays like that when I was a kid, with disease, no vet care, and starving. They were the mirror image of me.” Now her goal is to put an end to mistreatment of pets.
“People will call me in the middle of the night to help with a sick pet, or to call about abuse and neglect, she says. “I go when I can,” adds Bressette, who has helped create “Straw Day” at Kettle Point, a late Fall event each year when straw bedding and other necessities of pet life are handed out for free to help pet owners get through the Winter.
“At Straw Day, we teach the empathy that parents need to teach in the home. We help put the parents back into the teaching role [so they can help their children care for family pets]”, she says.
That empathy is what many families lost during the residential schools time. “Bringing people from off-Reserve to share their knowledge about animals is really breaking down barriers. At first we could see the mistrust of outsiders at Straw Day, but now there’s much more trust and barriers are coming down,” Bressette says. “That’s what truth and reconciliation is all about. After all, we all love our animals.”