Family dog methodically beaten and mutilated

SEAN McKIBBON
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT— An Iqaluit man hopes the brutal killing of his family’s pet will act as a catalyst for establishing a humane society in Iqaluit.

“At least maybe then Baby won’t have died in vain,” said David Stephens.

Last week, school children discovered Stephens’s dog “Baby,” lying in a heap next to his house.

“The school kids were all friends with Baby. They’d see him as they walked to the high school. They’d always throw him sandwiches or bits of wieners. Everybody loved him,” Stephens said.

But someone beat the nine-month-old husky to death, crushing Baby’s skull and severing his tongue, said Stephens.

Animal control officers who were called to the scene by the school kids told Stephens later that the dog’s ribs had also been broken.

It was hard to see evidence of any wounds Stephens said, but when the dog was examined later, its teeth were clenched shut and had to be pried apart. Then the dog’s skull collapsed and Stephens said parts of the dog’s brain were in its mouth.

“Whoever it was, they took their time at it and they took their pleasure,” Stephens said . The beating was so severe that it would have required repeated blows administered with considerable force, he said.

“This was the work of some very sick, twisted individual. The scary part is if they are willing to do that to a dog, then they’ll have no qualms about doing that to a human being,” he said.

His two daughters were devastated by the death, he said. Normally Baby was kept inside at night, Stephens said, but the dog was muddy and he put Baby out around 1:30 a.m.

Stephens said he didn’t hear any noise because the dog was tied up at the side of his house where there are no windows. He said Baby was usually kept behind the house, but that area was already taken.

Stephens is renovating his house and piles of building materials sat behind the house where the dog was usually kept.

“I was so angry when it first happened. I wanted to rip somebody’s teeth out.

In anger he put up a sign where Baby was killed that says: “A very sick, twisted person killed my dog. God may forgive. I will not.”

Stephens is offering a $200 reward for anyone who can help him catch the person who killed Baby. He says police are more than willing to lay charges in connection with the incident.

But Stephens also wants to find a longer-term solution to what he sees as a widespread problem of animal abuse in Iqaluit.

He says he wants to form a humane society to prevent similar attacks on other animals. Examples of animal abuse are plain to see in Iqaluit, he said.

“You see adults and kids throwing stones at dogs and hitting them with sticks. We have to educate people to tell them, no, that’s not how you treat animals. These are pets. Would you want someone to do that to you?” he said. There are many examples of neglect too, he said — dogs tied up without water, or left outside to freeze to death in the winter.

A humane society would give people a place to report cases of cruelty and would be able to hire officers to enforce animal welfare rules. The society could also run the dog pound instead of animal control officers, and could arrange for adoptions for unwanted pets, Stephens said.

He’s getting copies made of photos of Baby so that he can put them on coin collection jars he wants to leave at local businesses. Stephens says he wants to set up a fund to help establish the humane society and he also plans to approach local business people for help.

“The humane society in Toronto has photos of animals that have been abused to sort of shock people, to get them to think about it. I think maybe that’s what we need here in Iqaluit,” he said.