By Derek Cornet

Stray Animals

U of S forms animal research circle in tri-communities

Feb 4, 2019 | 12:08 PM

Administrators at the University of Saskatchewan are preparing to engage tri-community residents in finding solutions to reduce the number of stray animals in the North.

Launched in September 2018, the La Ronge Regional Animal Research Circle is composed of faculty from the U of S’s Western College of Veterinary Medicine, as well as representatives from the Lac La Ronge Indian Band, La Ronge, Air Ronge, Northern Animal Rescue and local health services. Jordan Woodsworth, a clinical associate with the Department of Small Animal Clinical Science, chose the tri-communities for the circle because she’s been involved with the bi-annual neuter and spay clinics at Jonas Roberts Memorial Community Centre.

“We sat down together and the folks around the table identified a bunch of questions that they wanted answered through research,” she said. “Once we have our ethics approval, we will be reaching out to community members a little more formally in helping us answer some of these questions.”

With the circle set to meet at least once every three months for the next two years, Woodsworth stated there will likely be community meetings in the future to let residents know what the group is all about. She noted residents will also be asked to help answer some of the questions, which will then we compiled and potentially used in several ways. Some of the information gathered could be used in various reports or submitted in papers to scientific journals.

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In 2018, the Western College of Veterinary Medicine spayed and neutered hundreds of animals in the tri-communities with nearly 170 operations during their clinic May. Woodsworth was the veterinarian in charge at those clinics and already has a sense about what the situation is like for stray animals in the region.

“Ultimately, all the information is going to come back to the community first and nothing will be shared outside the community until [residents] have seen it, and [agree] those are the right conclusions to draw,” she said.

derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno