Copyright © 2001 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

SOUTH DAKOTA - I want to bring attention a to very bad article (see below) that came out in this weeks Todd County Tribune, Located in Mission, South Dakota. The article was about a woman named Anita Whipple, an IRA Tribal Government Health Administrator who pushed to have Dogs shot here on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation, located in South Central South Dakota.

According to her news release she already has it in place where the authorities will go community to community looking for strays or any dogs with out collars or not restrained will be taken to a specified location and shot. I don't have the article in front of me at this time of the morning, perhaps the lady at the newspaper could provide a copy of it.

I, myself, love dogs and I think it is wrong for them to do something like this. To me it is very wrong because these same Tribal Administrators talk so much bull about economic opportunity here on the Rosebud and yet they won't even try and get a Humane Shelter, which would provide a few jobs and service for our animals.

I pray that someone can help me get in touch with some animal rights people to bring this to their attention,

I am a Sicangu Lakota man who loves dogs, be it wolves coyotes and there has to be a better solution then going out and randomly picking up dogs that don't have collar or proof they belong to someone and taking them and shooting them. We don't have a Humane Shelter here yet.

These Shunka's have a spirit and deserve better.

I am Alfred T. Bone Shirt Jr.,
P.O. Box 586,
St. Francis,South Dakota 57572
E-mail: huhoogle@gwtc.net

Rosebud - Some 60,000 stray dogs are currently believed to be running - most of them freely - across the Rosebud Reservation. Last year alone, 52 reported dog bites, some of them serious, cost $200,356 in medical treatment from area medical clinics and hospitals serving Indian people. It is believed many more dog bites were not reported. A wild pack of dogs running near Todd County Middle School was recently reported.

According to a news release from the RST Health Dept., many of the stray dogs are starving, mangy, unwanted and need to be eliminated. According to RST Health Dir. Anita Whipple, the Health Dept. was promised an injury prevention grant of $50,000 to set up a reservation-wide animal shelter but, Whipple said, the funding was reduced to $15,000 per year for three years, which is insufficient money to build and maintain a shelter so the shelter wasn't built.

According to the RST Law and Order Code, Title V, Chap. 15, the RST Police Dept. is technically responsible for animal control. Due to a shortage of officers, funding and available facilities, this section of the code hasn't been developed, maintained or enforced. Meanwhile, dog bites, particularly to children, are traumatic and frequently cause life-long anxiety. With so many dogs out of control, unwanted and abused, many animals are not vaccinated and become potential rabies carriers, which creates another high health hazard.

Now, the RST Health Board, Health Administration Program, Police Dept., Tribal Court, Indian Health Service, Water Resources and Housing have cooperated in establishing a three-year plan to systematically catch and eliminate at-large dogs in three cycles from community to community across the reservation.

The program will begin June 18 in Winner, Ideal and Okreek Communities, June 19 and 20 in Antelope and Rosebud Communities and will continue in the rest of the reservation's communities throughout June, July and August.

If you have a pet that you don't want eliminated, the RST Health Dept. asks owners to have it restrained during this time and show they have an owner by making sure they're wearing a collar, harness or bandanna around their neck or be leashed.

Any dogs running at large will be caught and eliminated without being held. Dog control efforts will be made from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Calendars outlining when dog control efforts will come to your community can be obtained from the RST CHR program. In addition, Radio KINI will announce which communities are scheduled for which day.

If you have an animal(s) that you wish to have eliminated, you may stop the truck when it comes to your community and let the driver know the location of the animal(s).

The RST Health Dept. has a memorandum of agreement with the RST Court to disallow animal cruelty charges against the health department, a memo with Housing to enforce their occupancy code regarding the restraining of pets, with CHR to distribute fliers and calendars in each community and with IHS to provide one 8Õ x 8Õ cage, gloves and masks and to have one location in each community where people may ask questions and obtain information.

"I know some animal activists won't like it", Ms. Whipple commented, "but we are going to have to shoot these dogs. We must absolutely eliminate this problem." She added the RST Police Dept. will pick a site for eliminating the dogs and RST Solid Waste will provide roll away containers to take the carcasses to the Carter Landfill for disposal.

Whipple added that RST Health Dept. wants to eventually work cooperatively with the City of Mission to provide a shelter so stray dogs can be held there three days, giving owners time to claim and restrain them.

"We want to start an Animal Responsible Owner Campaign to run concurrently with the elimination program during the three-year plan", she concluded.