Dog attacks spark animal rescue crisis in Northern Saskatchewan

A northern Saskatchewan animal rescue head said she’s “never quite seen anything like this here” after responding to a community days after a brutal animal attack.

Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation health staff have reported multiple dog attacks in the Pelican Narrows area in recent days. Saskatchewan RCMP reported two dog attacks in that community in a news release on Nov. 3, involving animals belonging to different owners.

Read more:

• Pelican Narrows dog attack leaves young woman critically injured
• Pelican Narrows dog attacks by different animals, RCMP says
• ‘Hundreds of wounds’: Local veterinarian’s horses mauled in alleged dog attack

“People are scared crapless,” said Chelsie Breeze, chairperson and founder of Boreal Animal Rescue in La Ronge, who responded to the community within days of the most recent attack.

“There’s no way we’re going to rescue our way out of this. This is a real big crisis,” Breeze said.

Chelsie Breeze, founder of Boreal Animal Rescue, holds a dog in Pelican Narrows in November 2026. (Chelsie Breeze/Submitted)

Boreal Animal Rescue was already scheduled to travel to Pelican Narrows and work with Running Wild Rescue to conduct a PULL — a process in which the organizations humanely and safely remove animals from a community, as opposed to a CULL, which involves shooting animals to remove them.

“How bizarre is it that the day before we come, there was a tragedy,” Breeze shared in an email. She said recent crime news had her concerned for her team’s well-being leading up to the visit.

“I attend these northern communities all the time, but I’ll be honest. I was really nervous about coming to Pelican at first,” Breeze said in an interview on Thursday, after leaving the community.

Breeze shared that her team brings straw, medicine, dog food, leashes, collars and other basic supplies for animal care into the community and goes door to door, checking in on families and animals to ensure they are well.

Hay brought to Pelican Narrows to provide to animal owners in need of more supplies for their animals. (Chelsie Breeze/Submitted)

“We make sure they’re okay,” Breeze said. “We offer surrender, if they want or, if they like the dog, they love the dog, they care for the dog, then we do our best to support them.”

Breeze remarked that many families simply do not feed their animals in northern communities, which she said often is the root issue contributing to dogs forming packs and attacking.

“Eight times out of 10, all these dogs need is food and water and in 24 hours, they’re a completely different dog,” Breeze said. “They’re wagging their tail. They’re starting to show their personality and their character. They’re not in survival mode.”

A surrendered puppy from Pelican Narrows, now in the care of Boreal Animal Rescue in La Ronge. (Chelsie Breeze/Submitted)

The dogs involved in the attacks, to Breeze’s knowledge, were all “owned” dogs. The RCMP said officers put down three dogs that were reportedly involved in the attack on Nov. 2.

Breeze said the tragedy opened the floodgates for her organization’s visit to Pelican Narrows. Usually, during a PULL, her team will collect up to 20 or 30 surrendered dogs. During their initial visit to this community, she said they collected carloads of surrendered animals, estimating the total at between 40 and 50 dogs.

Dogs that were surrendered to Boreal Animal Rescue in Pelican Narrows this week. (Chelsie Breeze/Submitted)

Most visits are triggered by community members reaching out, saying dogs are in their community and problems might be occurring.

“It usually involves like somebody got bit or chased, or … people are scared,” Breeze explained.

After this incident, she said the “super traumatic” event “put the community into an absolute crisis,” even leading people to carry metal poles when walking down the street because they feared being attacked by an animal.

“There’s a real sense of urgency within the community,” Breeze said.

The fact that the attack happened just days before, heightened community interest in the rescue’s visit.

“They were so excited to see us,” Breeze reported. “People were stopping on the street to talk to us. People wanted to take us to their, these, you know, houses and show us where there was dogs that needed to be surrendered.”

Their visit, intended to last only one day, resulted in up to 50 dogs being seized, according to Breeze’s initial estimate. Another visit has been scheduled for next month.

Up to 40 or 50 dogs were surrendered to Boreal Animal Rescue over the past few days from Pelican Narrows, Chelsie Breeze reported. (Chelsie Breeze/Submitted)

She said they weren’t able to address dog packs they observed in the area or the animals hanging around the community’s dump.

“These animals, some of them are like weapons, and people are keeping these German shepherds on two-foot chains with no food and no water.”

Breeze noted it can be really difficult for a community to take action without having the necessary resources.

“We come into these communities, we offer resources. We educate. We work with the leadership,” Breeze said, explaining the importance of the work animal organizations like hers are doing.

She also highlighted the importance of empowering children in communities to care for the animals they know and see, knowing when and how to provide them with food and water.

Breeze said Boreal Animal Rescue will have to return to capture more stray dogs roaming the area in packs and hanging around the community’s dump in December. (Chelsie Breeze/Submitted)

Breeze said this is a problem not just affecting Pelican Narrows, but many communities in northern Saskatchewan. Even after their initial visit, she said she would still consider the community “unsafe” at this time.

She commended Running Wild Rescue for its work in the area and invited other “frontliners” interested in travelling north to help communities to contact the rescue and offer assistance.

“Getting them out and getting them into homes where they get food and water and love is half the time all the medicine you need,” Breeze said.