00:14:22.560Even the prosecution seemed to be taken aback.
00:14:25.000But Justice Crowshoe, who is the judge assigned to this little judicial farce we're taking part in, doesn't appear to be too receptive on hearing a defense.
00:14:34.740But the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms has certainly been helping me out.
00:14:37.860And we will take this as far up the court ladder as we must.
00:14:41.380So if we go to a justice beyond Madam Crowshoe, I suspect some of the rulings might be different.
00:14:47.380One of the things I documented on the reserve while I was out there, I wanted to point out to people because people don't go on the reserves and they often don't see it, are the feral and wild dogs.
00:14:55.660I got a video of that and talked about that.
00:14:58.920And my guest is going to talk much more about that.
00:15:22.060So I guess I'll leave it to you to kind of introduce it.
00:15:24.960You know, in a nutshell, what have you been up to?
00:15:28.120What is it, you know, that you're trying to do to help the feral dog populations?
00:15:33.360Well, number one, bringing awareness to it.
00:15:37.000that is the biggest thing for me because uh in 2022 is when I actually became aware of how
00:15:42.820secure it was and it didn't take me long to find out why people don't know about it and that's
00:15:48.340because like I was just listening to you say um everybody's afraid to expose it because of the
00:15:53.000backlash that they're going to get right and um after doing a fundraiser in 2022 I uh I dropped
00:16:00.260the check off at a local animal shelter here in central Alberta and they were telling me stories
00:16:06.260they brought a dog out for me to get a photo with and the dog was missing a leg it had a freshly
00:16:11.780amputated leg and had a road rash and i said oh no like what happened to her and just kind of
00:16:17.140thinking you know like maybe an accident or a dog fight or something and i had no idea where this
00:16:20.980dog came from and they told me uh they said where do you think and i said i have no idea is this a
00:16:27.380trick question i have no idea it all came from masco cheese which is a local reserves north of
00:16:32.100up and open here and uh and i was in shock i was i felt like this little kid who just kind of had
00:16:38.000his dreams crushed and he said this this stuff happens all the time like you didn't know and i'm
00:16:42.060like no i didn't i was mad that i didn't know and i was wondering why i didn't know i grew up here
00:16:46.640like how did i not know this and well it's because everybody's afraid to face the backlash that we
00:16:52.020get yeah and and again part of why as we said with the video i did was just most people if they don't
00:16:58.960have a reason to they don't go on to a first nations reserve uh it's you know if you don't
00:17:02.880have a purpose to go there you typically don't go so you don't understand and see what's there
00:17:06.860like this has been an issue i was talking to dave uh the former fella who was on here our new
00:17:11.600one of our news guys uh about what he used to see in morley like these feral dogs are an issue on
00:17:19.320every reserve and they have been for decades and decades uh but now the problem is kind of going
00:17:24.200underground because they're they're kind of locking people out and it's unfortunate these
00:17:28.180animals are suffering terribly so what have you been doing to kind of bring attention to that i
00:17:32.200know you've stirred some folks up i have yes i um uh in 2024 so like you said people don't usually
00:17:38.880you know they don't take vacations to the reserves and they don't usually take the the alternate route
00:17:43.560to go through them and that's that's the thing right and that's why i i decided one day i was
00:17:49.260going to make a decision to bring light to this no matter what backlash i face because i i just
00:17:53.740know it's the right thing to do and you know i'm not looking to um shame people that grew up in
00:17:59.220this environment and uh you know were dealt shitty cards it's it's more to shame the leadership for
00:18:04.640allowing it to continue for shaming to shame the government for not intervening when they should
00:18:09.260and because they know it's happening of course they do right and the problem is too on the on
00:18:14.880the systemic issues that these communities face the dogs are at the very bottom of the totem pole
00:18:19.560like you say the the housing conditions and and the people they're always going to come first so
00:18:24.460the dogs they're just a pawn on the chest table and for what I've been doing it started in uh
00:18:30.160January of 2024 um I was laying on my couch in my condo when I was living in Innisfil
00:18:35.400and it was minus 50 we had that minus 50 cold snap in January there and uh my truck wouldn't
00:18:42.580start I was laying on the couch watching tv and uh I couldn't stop thinking about those dogs I
00:18:47.860couldn't stop thinking about how pain the pain they must be in right and and at this time um this
00:18:54.060was the this was the big shift for me at this time i had this idea in my head that res dogs because i
00:18:58.900always heard the term res dog and i just assumed that it meant stray dog i thought it meant you
00:19:02.840know a wild dog which i hate that term now feral dog is what they are they're not wild because
00:19:07.520wild dogs can survive in the wild these ones can't um but i i started a fundraiser on on my facebook
00:19:14.140platform before i had any sort of following and uh i just said you know like i i'm a country kid
00:19:21.460i know that straw bales is what we use to keep any animals warm um you know um horses sheep goats
00:19:27.640whatever and i uh you know i'm like i'm gonna i'm gonna find a straw bale hookup and we're gonna
00:19:33.820we're gonna go buy some bales and i didn't know how many we were gonna get i didn't know how much
00:19:37.140money we were gonna raise but we did end up doing um nine thousand dollars in three days and i think
00:19:41.460be purchased around over 2,000 bales that we dispersed between four communities in central
00:19:47.420Alberta. That would be Ocheese, Sunchild, Masquechise, and Morley, as you were talking about
00:19:51.880before. That there was the first time that I actually stepped foot on the reserve without
00:19:56.700just driving through my vehicle. I actually got to see it firsthand. So I got brought out by a
00:20:01.760person who reached out to me and said, who granted you access to these communities? I said, nobody.
00:20:07.100i'm going either way and uh she said well no worries we'll grant you access this was a
00:20:12.480former rescue friend that i had that uh we're no longer associated and um she brought me out
00:20:19.500and i i had this image in my head that we would be in the field building these straw huts for
00:20:25.480these stray dogs that's just what i pictured and i i followed her to a house and she gets out she
00:20:31.040goes up to knock on the door and i could see that there's a dog chained up outside with no shelter
00:20:35.560no food no water freezing alternating paws because his paws are freezing off and i said what the what
00:20:41.500the hell are we doing here and she said well we're just asking permission to see if we can build a
00:20:45.040hut for their dog and i'm like this dog has a house this dog has a home and that's where everything
00:20:50.020changed i looked around and what i thought was smoke and mirrors it was not just a stray crisis
00:20:56.180that's only 30 of the problem it is the treatment of the animals that are owned by people in these
00:21:02.120communities and that's what people need to understand that's what they need to see and i
00:21:05.600don't see anybody else exposing that no and it's horrifying to see i i worked in the field for for
00:21:12.28020 years and i worked on a lot of reserves in the past and that's part of why i know how they are
00:21:16.480and that's why i wanted it as you're doing this first step is to let people know because they
00:21:20.300just don't realize and there's there's like a few levels of where the dogs are in difficulty
00:21:24.900one as you said is where they're restrained and they're chained at some households and again i
00:21:29.340both we're both clear that some households take great care of their animals like anybody else
00:21:34.460but it's much more on the reserve where there's a problem others then there's the ones that are
00:21:38.140associated with the home but they're not chained or restrained in any sort of way and they run
00:21:42.700semi-feral they're unfixed that's part of a large part of the problem and then more puppies come
00:21:49.340then often some of those puppies might survive well they don't want to raise more dogs those
00:21:52.780ones end up going out being totally feral and they can become dangerous it's a hamster wheel
00:21:59.340it's a hamster wheel we did have a girl uh lose her life earlier this year a rescue girl in
00:22:03.980manitoba i didn't know her personally but a lot of mutual friends between us and yeah she she got
00:22:09.100mauled so it's a real problem yeah these are desperate dangerous dogs i wrote a piece recently
00:22:13.740on it with a number of issues just in the last five years with often children killed by packs
00:22:18.380of feral dogs because they're on the reserves they're out of control uh there's just so many
00:22:24.220levels of how terrible this is i know there's been efforts over the years though they quietly
00:22:29.340do it because nobody wants to assign responsibility there's been rescue societies i know in the
00:22:33.580sutina reserve there's been free uh vet clinic that's mobile that'll go out there and we'll fix
00:22:38.860the animals for them if people want to bring them in and they'll have like a mobile problem it's if
00:22:43.900they want to yes accountability is gone and the participation's been low so you have rescued some
00:22:52.060dogs now i've seen some of the backlash from some people they're accusing you of stealing dogs uh
00:22:58.540when it's a dog that's suffering and being abused i don't see that as theft i see that as a human
00:23:03.500intervention but uh you you're going to be in risk of getting in some some problems pretty soon
00:23:09.260You know, it's funny. I have police officers in my back pocket who commend what I do. And they would have to say it publicly, obviously, for the sole fact that they're going to get their backlash and potentially lose their job.
00:23:23.720and i also know police officers who work on reserves who have been um penalized for rescuing
00:23:30.680animals on the job as well because uh apparently that's not what they're supposed to do but if you
00:23:35.360if you look up the criminal code of canada the animal welfare laws laws the ones that are um
00:23:40.700stated in the indian act section 88 it actually is their job and they are the only ones with
00:23:45.160jurisdiction to do anything um so yeah i have uh i have said that i it's more of a joke you know
00:23:52.940people say reed steels dog i say yet stole a dog today right save them without permission because
00:23:57.840um in my eyes and i guess i don't know how you view it but um for me it's i'm looking at a child
00:24:04.700that's suffering right they're as vulnerable as a child for me i'm not asking permission to save
00:24:10.380and i will happily i will happily take the fine the the consequences if there were any it would
00:24:17.820be ridiculous if there was i've never i have never taken an animal that has been formally taken care
00:24:24.980of that and i wouldn't and i understand the difference between a free roaming dog that is
00:24:29.020taken care of i totally i'm not running around taking dogs with collars that are in good shape
00:24:34.080and have good lives because you know what those dogs are going to end up hating their lives because
00:24:37.420they just lost their freedom a lot of these dogs that we bring in they are feral and they are the
00:24:43.020ones that can't be um they can't be changed no i mean that's another issue for rehabilitation
00:24:49.980and trying to home dogs if they've been out too long sometimes they they just end up destroyed
00:24:55.020unfortunately anyways because you can't bring them into a regular household but it's worth a try
00:24:59.520the the ones that the other ones as you said i mean there's enough to deal with already you're
00:25:04.560not going to go out picking up dogs that are living perfectly fine it's you can barely keep
00:25:09.060up with the ones that are suffering right now exactly exactly and a good example of that right
00:25:13.700now currently there's a dog on the saddle lake reserve um i'm sure you probably know where that
00:25:18.140is just outside of edmonton there's a dog that was sent to us with a leg that um is missing it
00:25:25.360wasn't amputated i don't know what happened a snare or a trap or another dog i really don't
00:25:29.940know but you can see that it is festering and probably getting infected and we we reached out
00:25:37.700couple times people on my behalf to take the dog in and we've been declined that is that is an
00:25:43.940example of a dog that i would take if i was sitting there yeah and it extends beyond that and i know
00:25:50.180there's only so much you can do but i know there's horse rescues too because there's a whole lot of
00:25:54.500problems unfortunately with with horses and livestock on the reserves as well i mean the
00:25:59.460issue is much larger i i see the dogs the horses the suffering the abuse as a symptom again of a
00:26:05.380a bigger broken system it's not saying you don't care about the people in the state that they're
00:26:10.260in in fact the state that the people are in is what's leading to the dog suffering as well
00:26:14.140it all ties together it does it absolutely does and it is a systemic crisis and there's no doubt
00:26:20.260about that and it's it's weird i think it's kind of like a culture it is a culture shock when you
00:26:26.000go see this especially when it's right there in your backyard you know morally uh masco cheese
00:26:30.740these ones that are only a drop like a 45 minute drive from town or even less sometimes and one of
00:26:38.100the biggest excuses that we hear is the lack of funding and resources well not only that only
00:26:44.100works as an excuse for the ones that are you know in northern saskatchewan the fly-in communities
00:26:48.520northern alberta the ones that literally don't have access to those things and if you ask me i
00:26:53.260have a quick solution to that problem and it's let's get the animals out we can't take care of
00:26:57.800them and we can't feed them and we can't provide them with the necessities that they require then
00:27:03.060let's get them out that's a pretty easy solution to me and then the ones that are close to like
00:27:07.320my mother lives uh 35 minutes into the country from the nearest vector she has seven dogs that
00:27:13.260that excuse doesn't pass no it's uh you know i'm in i'm not a very terribly isolated area but i live
00:27:21.540in a rural area and i've gone through all we rescue a lot of dogs it's part it's a pet subject
00:27:25.360for me i don't go on the reserves to get them but we always get ours from from animal rescues and
00:27:29.280they often did originate on reserves but we can't keep up and uh you know just kind of as we wrap up
00:27:35.200like moving towards the solution base you held an a great event over on the legislature in edmonton
00:27:40.960recently again there was an indigenous group protesting you uh for whatever reason uh but
00:27:47.760where do you think we should go to try and find a solution because i mean they you know they're1.00
00:27:52.160animals they can breed and and if we don't get to the root of it it's still just going to be a
00:27:55.980perpetual thing at the end of the day for me um a lot of people get kind of bottlenecked in the
00:28:01.060spay neuter idea you know like let's end the stray crisis spay neuter spay neuter but that's only
00:28:05.340targeting one part of the problem not to mention i would never offer a free spay neuter clinic
00:28:11.360without a contract from the band saying that they're going to follow up with laws and enforcement
00:28:17.160of those laws that already exist, right?
00:28:20.240I have a friend at Northern Saskatchewan.
00:28:22.740It took them six months to remove every stray from one community.
00:28:26.720They came back in a year and it was back to the same.
00:28:29.020And that is because everybody wants a puppy.0.52
00:28:31.000And then when the puppy starts shitting and pissing in the house,
00:28:33.980it gets kicked out the door and that's where it gets to fend for itself.
00:28:47.160And I mean, it's part of a larger social issue, but I mean, I'm glad you're working on it and you're bringing attention to it and doing the things you can for the ones you can find.
00:28:54.620Where can people find what you're up to and support your work?
00:29:00.980Facebook and Instagram, those two pages have been turned from a music platform into an animal advocacy platform.
00:29:07.280And right now we are in the midst of launching our second organization, which will be tied into Reed Salmon Foundation, the one that I originally started.
00:29:15.080I originally started it just because I wanted to raise money
00:33:17.220You know, people get more sometimes, I guess, upset or active when an animal is being abused than sometimes when a person is.
00:33:27.600I think it's the fact that it's the helplessness.
00:33:30.460When an animal's abused, they really, you know, are at a terrible disadvantage when they're being abused or neglected by a human being.
00:33:37.620Because, you know, we have all the advantages.
00:33:39.260We're larger, we're smarter, we're able to abuse.
00:33:42.220Same thing when people get upset when a child is abused or a senior citizen.
00:33:45.500You know, they don't like to see any abuse, but when it's something that really can't help itself, it's awful to see.
00:33:52.320I put a video up a while back on my own page on just somebody who'd caught a clip of a gentleman who was screaming at people who were giving out signs for the independence movement.
00:34:04.280Now, we get that regularly, and those clips take off a bit.
00:34:07.080But in this case, the man with his temper and he had a dog with him jerked that poor thing right off its feet by its neck with the collar and stomped away.