Mother of dog-attack victim recounts ‘traumatizing day’
Igloolik’s Sharon Mary Kapp says owners need to keep dogs tied up
Sharon Mary Kapp said her daughter Sharlotte, left, is getting lots of support from her twin sister Scarlett, right, after Sharlotte was attacked by a dog in Igloolik on March 31. (Photo courtesy of Sharon Mary Kapp)
Sharon Mary Kapp faced what she later called her “most traumatizing day” on the last day of March when she went to check on her twin four-year-old girls, Sharlotte and Scarlett Kappianaq.
Sharlotte Kappianaq (right) suffered multiple deep cuts and a severely damaged left eye after she was attacked by a dog in Igloolik on March 31, her mother Sharon Mary Kapp said. The four-year-old had two surgeries after the incident and will require another surgery to see if her eyesight can be saved, Kapp said. (Photo courtesy of Sharon Mary Kapp)
Scarlett was inside the house, but Sharlotte was not.
That’s when Kapp saw the window was open, and the distinct sound of barking dogs was coming from outside.
Kapp quickly ran outside to see where Sharlotte had gone.
“That’s when I saw her with three dogs around her,” she said on Monday over Facebook Messenger.
The next few moments were a flurry of panic for the Igloolik mother.
“I ran quickly to her and when I approached her, the three dogs backed off. I grabbed her from where she was laying down. I ran to my house ’cause the loose dog was still following,” she said.
When Kapp got back inside she asked for help from a friend.
“She told me to take off with her [snow] machine so I just took off and when I got to the health centre, someone grabbed [Sharlotte] from me and I fainted.”
Sharlotte was medevaced to Iqaluit for emergency surgery, but doctors weren’t able to repair her left eye which “was ripped open and had broken bone on her eye area,” Kapp said.
So Sharlotte and her mother were sent to Ottawa to the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario for a second surgery on April 2.
Sharlotte had sustained multiple deep cuts on her face that required stitches.
Kapp said her daughter might lose vision in her left eye. They’ll have to wait for the swelling to go down and have an additional surgery in May to find out.
Kapp said she plays with her twin daughters outside every day but doesn’t let them go outside on their own due to the loose dogs in the area.
This was the first time one of them had ever wandered outside on their own.
“My tiny baby went out without [me] noticing,” she said.
“I’ve been feeling so bad, seeing people’s comments, saying it was my fault that she went out playing by herself.”
Kapp said she informed the hamlet office what happened when she got to the Igloolik health centre, and later spoke with the local RCMP once she got to Ottawa.
She said one of the dogs was a stray, but the two others have an owner. One of those two dogs appeared to have blood around its neck, Kapp said.
Kapp said while dog attacks are rare in the community, she’s angry that the dogs weren’t tied up when she found her daughter outside.
“I’ve been having nightmares every night, and my emotions are like roller coaster rides. [I’m] happy that she’s alive, then I feel like such a failure mom,” she said.
“Asking why she had to go through this, then I’m so blessed she’s still here with me.”
Igloolik chief administrative officer Greg Morash explained that if a person is attacked by a dog, the hamlet tries to confine the dog and keep it tied up for monitoring.
Igloolik mother Sharon Mary Kapp is calling for dog owners to keep their dogs tied up outside after her four-year-old daughter Sharlotte was attacked by loose dogs on March 31. (Photo courtesy of Sharon Mary Kapp)
“Then we notify the public health officials, then we leave it tied up out of the way of people for up to seven days to see if it shows signs of rabies,” he said.
Morash said one of the three dogs that Kapp saw surrounding Sharlotte is currently being quarantined. A decision will be made in a few days if the dog will be put down.
Morash estimated that Igloolik destroys 250 to 300 dogs per year.
“We have a policy that if they’re wandering around loose, without any owner, we don’t take the chance,” he said.
If a person’s dog attacks or bites someone, there aren’t many consequences for the owner beyond their dog being possibly destroyed.
“The responsibility would be on the person who was attacked to prove it was a specific dog that attacked them, and then they could take civil action,” Morash said.
“We don’t have a dog tag system, but we should.”
A dog-tag system would help identify which dogs belong to whom.
“The thing is here, we’ve got so many loose dogs. Hopefully the spaying and neutering will reach some of the puppies. Everybody likes a puppy, but when they get old, they sort of just let them go,” Morash said.
Sharlotte is now recovering in Ottawa with her twin sister Scarlett by her side.
“She got her imagination back and went back to [being] herself when her twin came here to join her,” Kapp said.
“She was all sad for five days and didn’t talk much. She got so lifted when they got together.”
Glad to hear shes ok but this is indicitive of a huge problem in the north that seem to be only getting worse. For a culture that used to have a tremendous use for dogs, it is unfortunate of what has become of dogs in the north. Most Hamlets have zero control over the dog population and nobody wants to be responsible for the dogs.
People need to stop getting puppies because their cute. Once they’re no longer puppies they get tied up, ignored, starve, let loose, and then they become violent and angry towards humans. This is 100% the fault of the owner, not the dog.
If you’re poor and on welfare, chances are a dog is not for you. Can you afford to send it to Ottawa to get Spayed or Neutered? Will you spend the time to properly train the dog? Can you afford to get it the shots it needs to prevent spread of disease? Can you afford dog food or have a reliable source of country food to feed it? If the answer to these are no chances are you probably shouldnt have a dog.
IF hamlet want to make the dog problem go away, enforce the dog bylaws. Start by charging $1000 to register a dog with the Hamlet (because that is a fraction of what it costs to own a dog). Start making sure the dog is fixed and got all it shots. Too expensive? Maybe rethink getting a dog. Start giving fines to people who are giving away puppies and charging the owners with loose dogs. All dog should be registered with Hamlet and have a tag other wise dog catcher takes it away.
Dogs can be great family members but also can be very dangerous. Its all up to the owner to be responsible.
With the problem of stray dogs and rabies present, it’s just a matter of time before this happens again. Unless, of course, people actually start to care and realize the gravity of loose dogs.
I know of a few other dog attacks in this hamlet that have gone unreported by the news. I am sure the same is true in other communities. Attacks that require a few minor stitches. All it would have taken in those instances was a person falling down and they could have been a lot worse.
@867, The goal of tagging dogs is not to punish and financially burden responsible owners. You make dog tags cheap. Like $10-20 a dog. Maybe even less for dog team owners. But you make the fines for mistreatment of animals and loose dogs expensive to deter irresponsible ownership.
If 1000.00 is a financial burden to own a dog, then that should be the indicator that you should not own a dog. What is 10 dollars, that’s a joke.
Go look at how every city down south runs their dog bylaws. The tagging of a dog is a menial fee. Up here in the north you have people who have teams of over 10-15 dogs. You think they should have to pay a yearly 10-15,000 dollars to participate in their culture?
Destroying 200-300 dogs a year is not normal. That is more than in most small cities. Lax enforcement and lazy owners are to blame for this. Enforce dog tags, charge owners who do not comply or get their dogs registered. Charge owners who get their loose dogs scooped up by bylaw. Charge owners foe the cost of getting a dog destroyed. Lazy bylaws too gotta do their jobs
Hamlet’s not having a dog tag system, and also not enforcing public safety bylaws such as those related to animal ownership/care shows that the Hamlet is negligent. I think the family would have a very good case to sue the Hamlet and Council for this type of negligence.
They have a duty to take reasonable steps to ensure public safety which it looks like they have failed to do so in this case with no systems in place to deal with loose dogs. This should serve as a warning for all Hamlets to get their act together around dog bylaws.
If there is no funds or ability for infrastructure to deal with these dogs, go back to the old solution, that is more humane then letting this happen. It’s not a popular solution, but something needs to be done asap to get the populations under control. Dogs are not fixed, and hungry, it is a mix that ends with someone getting hurt. A 22 is better then no solution. Southerners want ever stray dog spayed or flown down south, which is unrealistic in communities where people are struggling to live, dogs are much lower priority.