A teacher from the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation is advocating for dogs living on First Nations through the initiative she founded, Save Rez Dogs.
Leah Arcand, who also has roots in the Cote First Nation, started the initiative in 2016 after witnessing treatment towards dogs that she described as “traumatizing.”
What started as a teaching moment for her students on Thunderchild First Nation – learning how to take care of dogs – grew to advocacy and education for band members on how to properly treat dogs and help minimize the number of roaming pets on reserves.
“I built my website to have resources for engaged community members to start building something,” Arcand said. “(I’m) really trying to build engagement and really push for readiness (of First Nation bands). So when they’re ready, they can reach out to me and I have the resources.”
Arcand said that if bands aren’t ready to take the necessary steps to address this problem, she can’t help them as much.
Until then, Arcand said she’s using her platform to help inform bands to keep their four-legged friends in mind when making decisions.
“That’s part of Save Rez Dogs’ role is creating that awareness, getting people to talk about it, to take it more seriously and to be proactive rather than reactive,” she said. “Because that’s where our communities have mainly been. It’s unfortunate that sometimes some communities or people wait until something bad happens to do something.”
Arcand said many times when something is done after an incident happens due to stray dog populations, the dogs are taken out of the community.
The initiative recently released a guide on how community members can help dogs, and Arcand said the most important thing someone can do is commit to helping.
“Committing to taking action, and finding your place and where you can commit,” she said. “So, if that means teaching about it in your classroom, fostering or fundraising for a spay/neuter for a dog. Committing to an action that is helping. That is my one main step for an action plan.”
Arcand’s website, saverezdogs.com, holds this action plan as well as other resources.
(PHOTO: Leah Arcand is the founder of Save Rez Dogs. Photo submitted by Leah Arcand.)