It must be puppy love

A tall, slender, pretty young lady with a successful career might be attracted to the odd “bad boy” from time to time, but one wouldn’t expect her to spend all her free time looking after the animal types.

Dismissing the glitz and glamour of Iqaluit’s city life, one woman instead has taken a shine to hanging with a rough crowd of locals at a dilapidated old building filled with chains and cages.

But wonders never cease, and neither does the selflessness and generosity of Kim Gould, president of the Iqaluit Humane Society.

Iqaluit’s dog shelter currently houses up to 10 pooches inside and six outside. It’s nothing fancy — poor water and sewage system, heated, but airy enough to let in wind and snow. But Gould has high hopes, and would like to eventually work full-time running the shelter.

In a city overrun by dogs, achieving her mission takes about as much effort as a full-time job, but right now, it falls into the “leisure time” category. Gould took over the shelter last summer after the city revoked its contract with the service provider, and after the local SPCA dissolved.

So Gould set to work establishing a local arm of the international animal welfare organization, applying for non-profit and charitable organization status and writing letters to local businesses asking for their support.

Most importantly, she established a critical connection with the Ottawa Humane Society. Gould and the staff at the Ottawa organization have become “blood siblings” so to speak, entering into a life-saving friendship. Through it, they have saved the lives of many lovable animals.

“I started sending about four to six animals a week down South in September, so that’s about 50 animals so far,” Gould said. With the help of Canadian North, the unwanted animals are flown to Ottawa, where they are met and taken in by staff from the local shelter. There they are kept and cared for, and given a better chance at finding a home.

“Canadian North has been absolutely amazing. They allow me to send the animals for free to the Ottawa Humane Society. The Ottawa Humane Society lends me the travel kennels and meets the dogs up at the other end,” Gould said.

With the amount of praise and appreciation Gould shows for those who have helped her assemble this one-woman show (and six board members), it’s easy to grasp why people are pitching in.

“I did a lot of work with the Toronto and Ottawa societies in getting set up. They helped me by telling me where to go to find information, what forms I would need to fill out and how to apply for non-profit and charitable organization status,” Gould said.

“And the bylaw officers have been awesome. They get a lot of negative reviews sometimes with animal care but they’ve been absolutely great. They transport me back and forth from the shelter and help send the animals down south.”

Although Gould’s presence has made it easier on the dogs, it’s a long way off from her ultimate goal.

“With the population [at 6,000] and not having [full-time] vet service here, our main goal is to educate people about animal care and ensure the animals are spayed and neutered.

“There is an extreme amount of dogs running around. It’s been a custom to react negatively and treat the animals poorly. We’re also hoping to bring education into the schools and get children to see that aggressive dog behaviour is a result of being mistreated, and that not all animals are like that.”

But she admits it’s going to be a long process, one that is always relieved by more helping hands. Anyone interested in volunteering even an hour a week would be appreciated, Gould emphasized.

Whether it’s marketing, fundraising, recruitment of other volunteers, or walking, feeding or just being a friend to a lonely dog, no hand is too small.