Autopsy confirms dog attack killed animal-rescue volunteer on First Nation

An autopsy has confirmed an animal rescue volunteer died of a dog attack on Sandy Bay Ojibway Nation earlier this month, the Manitoba First Nations Police Service says.

Amanda Nobiss, a 37-year-old woman from Winnipeg, was found dead in Sandy Bay on July 17 after police were contacted by a friend trying to locate her.

She often visited the community 180 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg to save animals.

The police service said Tuesday that an autopsy confirmed her “injuries were consistent with a dog attack.”

“We extend our condolences to Amanda’s family and loved ones,” the police service said in a statement.

Nobiss had been in Sandy Bay to pick up several puppies from a local resident on behalf of K9 Advocacy Manitoba on the day before she was found, police said.

They believe she went to the home alone when the resident was not there and came across the resident’s “protective and aggressive” dogs.

Her friend then called police at about 1 a.m. and officers searched the area where her cellphone’s location last pinged.

A community maintenance worker found Nobiss’s remains later that morning outside the resident’s home.

Band leadership and the police service arranged to put down two male dogs. The rescue group took in a female dog and several puppies.

K9 Advocacy Manitoba, along with the Winnipeg Humane Society and more than a dozen other animal rescues and organizations, issued a plea Tuesday calling on all levels of government to provide funding to address animal overpopulation, community safety and a “severe lack” of accessible veterinary care in First Nations.

“While our hearts break for Amanda’s family, friends and the communities she’s impacted, our grief is matched by deep frustration,” reads the statement from the organizations, calling the issue a provincial public-health crisis.

The groups are asking for an “immediate roundtable meeting” with the participation of the federal and provincial governments, Manitoba rescue groups and First Nations leadership, ahead of creating an advisory committee consisting of communities and First Nations governments, veterinary experts and rescue organizations.

The organizations say communities should be supported with more access to veterinary care, spay and neuter services, pet food, education and other resources, but that lasting solutions will be led and developed by the communities and First Nations leaders.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca