Black Lake welcomed non-profit organization One Health Dog Management Consulting to their community this week.

The Calgary-based group works with remote communities to help them achieve a manageable dog population through tools, resources and education.

Kelly Phipps, a consultant with the organization, made the trek from Calgary in a van filled with kennels, food and blankets.

Last year,One Health started a door-to-door dog survey in the community to get an idea of population, gender, vaccinations and number spayed and neutered.

“We did a dog demographics last year,” Phipps says “This time around we are revisiting the demographics, and we are also finding out who has dogs they would like to have re-homed.”

Phipps estimates approximately 40 dogs will make the 20-hour drive to Calgary and be re-homed through partner organizations around Alberta.

She had plenty of help collecting the data from Grade 10-12 students at Father Porte Memorial School in Black Lake.

Phipps explains the program has been a great introduction to STEM, a curriculum which educates students in four disciplines – science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“Math being the data and statistics to collect, technology being the app we use to do demographics and science with the biology of the collection of dog feces,” she says.

She adds students have been very receptive to the program, helping to plot maps of which homes have dogs living in them.

Phipps also instructed dog bite prevention courses to help community members identify negative dog behaviours and reduce the chances of an attack.

One of the key purposes of the dog population management program is to eliminate the practice of dog culling – killing the animals to reduce population.

“In the fall we are hoping to have a spay and neuter clinic as well to further stabilize the population,” she says.

Phipps adds they are looking at adding Stony Rapids to the clinic and dog program.

Stabilizing the canine population leads to fewer packs of dogs roaming around and less dog fights.

During spay and neuter clinics, dogs are also vaccinated and dewormed.

“We deworm them from the worms that dogs carry,” Phipps says. “There are certain types of worms that can be transferred to the humans that can cause significant health problems. We want to make sure to keep the dogs healthy and keep the people healthy as well.”

Last year, a dog demographic survey in Hatchet Lake recorded 98 dogs, none of which were, vaccinated, dewormed, spayed or neutered.

Phipps says people often think One Health is a rescue organization but this is not the case.

“I don’t bring that word (rescue) into what I do at all because it’s not about rescue, it’s about building sustainability in a community and making the community safer as a whole.”

(PHOTO: Kelly Phipps with students and dogs in Black Lake. Photo courtesy of One Health Dog Management Consulting Facebook page.)