Stop dreaming about the old days: shoot all the dogs

Since way back in the mid-1960s snow machines have taken over and dogs are useless. That is how it is nowadays. They are tied up in town and never ever run for exercise or to pull a qamotik anymore.

And yet we are still feeling more for the past than about today. But that is history now and should be forgotten.

I have seen some dogs tied up by my driveway when I come from hunting, when I am coming in or taking off with my big qamotik and skidoo. They are just there to eat leftovers from their masters.

They are never taken out on the land to protect their masters anymore. Some are just tied up all-year-round facing extreme wind chills in the cold winters and they are fed, nothing more, but with no exercise. In the summer they face mosquitoes and extreme hot weather, still tied up and still with no place to run to, away from the bugs and hot sun.

The elders are still dreaming away about the usefulness of dogs in the 1950s, but some of us are too old run the dogs with sleds, and the materials are too expensive to buy. Even the dogs cost money.

Why can’t we just stop dreaming about starting dog teams and get rid of our dogs for good? Keep one dog for protection from the wild animals, such as grizzlies and wolves, if we must. Why let the poor dogs suffer?

Some owners never even water their dogs in the hot summer days and the dogs suffer from dehydration. On the long weekends, the dogs are often loose and roaming around town so they can be free for a change, knowing their masters are out for a long time.

We live within low-dropping slopes here where I live. When the snow and ice melt, all that dog shit runs off into our drinking water, plus all that dog urine. This is not a short-time summer camp. This is where we live all year round, a permanent hamlet. Some dogs are only 50 or 100 yards off the shoreline and tied up for all four seasons.

They should all be shot where they are in a mercy killing to stop them from dirtying the shorelines, and to stop them from agonizing in the extreme weather and hot sun.

On top of that, we hunt for our dogs nowadays and let our dogs sit at home and wait for free handouts. The old Inuit philosophy is that, if you cannot build an igloo you should not have a wife, or else you and your wife will freeze to death in no time at all. I’d say if you cannot even look after one wife why should you even have dogs?

Some of the men have many wives and they are not even able to make a water hole. I’ve heard that some of our men are all muscles, but they actually wait on some 80-year-old for her to make an ice hole for them and then they go down to fetch water from her hole.

What a life today. It is nothing but a big dream. Don’t fall in love with the dreamer.

William Noah
Baker Lake