Interim Liberal leader’s husband discovered mother mauled by wild dogs

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This article was published 17/05/2017 (3106 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The shock and trauma of last weekend’s dog-mauling death in Little Grand Rapids is overwhelming, interim Manitoba Liberal leader Judy Klassen says.

Her husband, Jason, was among those who discovered the victim, 24-year-old mother Donnelly Rose Eaglestick.

“I can’t imagine. My husband was one of the first on the scene,” she said in a telephone interview Wednesday morning from the First Nation. “I’m waiting for him to open up. If it’s taking him this long, I can’t imagine how long it will take those people (who live in the community).”

Her husband was among a group of workers building a water treatment plant in Little Grand Rapids.

Klassen flew to the isolated community 270 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg Tuesday on the first float-plane flight she could get.

The community is still reeling in disbelief, Klassen said.

“There’s still a great deal of shock. It’s heartbreaking. I’ve never seen so many people cry. I’ve never seen an elder cry like that.

“It’s quite haunting,” she said.

Klassen has been meeting with the band council and with anyone who wants and needs to talk, she said.

“Obviously, these people need help,” she said.

Klassen said everywhere she goes in Little Grand Rapids, people walk in groups and carry sticks, which has been the practice for years, she was told.

It would never occur to her she couldn’t walk alone or let her kids walk anywhere in her home community of St. Theresa Point First Nation, and she has never encountered this level of concern about stray or wild dogs before on other reserves, the MLA for Kewatinook said.

“I’ve seen dogs all over the community. They become a pack as they move,” she said about what she has witnessed since arriving.

The people who found Eaglestick saw four dogs around her and 30 in total nearby, but Klassen heard reports of as many as 50 wild dogs loose in Little Grand Rapids. People have told Klassen the dogs roam in small groups but can quickly join together and form a pack.

Eaglestick was reportedly walking home early Saturday when she was attacked.

“It’s quite shocking how close it was to homes,” said Klassen, who described Little Grand Rapids as a typical reserve, with clusters of homes and buildings scattered across a large area.

She’s been told the community hasn’t previously taken action against the wild dogs because of problems that arose when a biting incident led to dogs being killed “inhumanely,” background Klassen was looking into further today.

“Elsewhere, I’ve seen they do regular culls,” she said.

“A lot of communities don’t know what they can do with their rights. It was quite new to me,” she said about the precautions people take in Little Grand Rapids, but it shows the neglect with which the government treats small and remote indigenous communities, she added.

The $25-a-dog bounty and talk of a cull are difficult because people can’t just use firearms in a residential community, but dogs could be trapped and taken to the landfill site to be shot, Klassen said.

Residents need to identify which dogs are wild and which dogs aren’t to ensure a family’s pet isn’t accidentally killed.

The community is small and isolated, with very few phones, Klassen said. Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen was helpful with mental-health services contacts, she said, and Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak has flown in its mobile crisis unit to offer individual counselling and larger sharing gatherings.

Klassen doesn’t accept statements from Manitoba’s department of sustainable development that it has no role in animal control on reserves.

She recalls provincial conservation officers coming onto St. Theresa Point to deal with bears, the interim Liberal leader said.

“They have firearms, they have cages, traps. That needs to be clarified. If they come for a problem bear, why won’t they come for a problem animal?”

At the very least, the province could fund organizations such as Manitoba Mutts to rescue strays or conduct spay-and-neuter clinics, Klassen said.

She is gathering specific needs from community leaders and expects to raise them in the house Thursday.

As is traditional, Klassen said, the family took Eaglestick’s body to Winnipeg and is returning with her later for Friday’s funeral.

It’s essential that help and support isn’t temporary, and resources must be in place after the media attention calms down, she said.

“This is the first time they’ve had a response from the outside, as they put it,” she said.

 

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca