By Roman Hayter
An upcoming event is focusing on the betterment and wellbeing of dogs in the tri-communities.
The presentation will be used to highlight the evidence obtained from an ongoing community study on ways to enhance the welfare and service outcomes for dogs in the community.
Dr. Jordan Woodsworth of the University of Saskatchewan, who is also the project’s lead, stated that the idea for the project began in 2018.
“I was just getting started with my graduate studies and was hoping to get together a group of people who would be interested in doing the research with me and kind of guiding the process and determining what we were going to find out because I really felt that it was most important to do a project that would be beneficial and have useful outcomes for the community, and tri-communities are near and dear to my heart. So, I really wanted to focus on the tri-communities as the region of interest,” said Woodsworth.
The focus of the study was directed toward the relationships between dogs and humans in the community.
“This is all about the dog and human relationships, so what we were hoping to find out was what roles do dogs play in the tri-communities and how do people think of the dog and human relationships and what are the things that are working or could be better in terms of dog care and control in the tri-communities, knowing that this is an area, one of many, that doesn’t have regular access to animal healthcare and welfare services,” Woodsworth said. “We come up usually twice a year, pandemic years are the exception, and we offer these clinics over the weekend usually in the spring, summer or fall and we typically get through somewhere in the neighborhood of 60-100 animals in for spay and neuter surgeries in a weekend and we also offer minor medical appointments and wellness check as well, vaccinations, things like that and this is all been in an effort to improve animal health to improve community health.”
The presentation will be used to showcase the information gathered in the study and take community feedback on the work done in the community over the last year. The presentation will be taking place at the Jonas Roberts Memorial Community Center on February 16 beginning at 6 p.m.