A dog rescue group and Pawtipsters are calling on the province and First Nations leaders to end the practice of dog culls.

Sally Hull of Hull’s Haven Border Collie Rescue and Yvonne Russell of Pawtipsters say a recent incident illustrates why dog culls, which mostly occur on northern Manitoba communities, are barbaric and must stop.

Trooper, an adult male Chesapeake Bay Retriever/cross, was rescued from a northern reserve and brought to Hull last Wednesday, suffering a shotgun blast to the face. Hull was told the dog had been lying injured in a yard for five days before anyone helped him.

Hull took Trooper to a veterinarian and an X-ray found 17 pellets in his head. The vet did all he could to save him, Hull said, but Trooper had to be put out of his misery on Saturday.

“This particular dog shoot was extremely brutal, because for whatever reason they decided to use a shotgun instead of a rifle,” Hull said Monday from her home near Gimli. “I don’t know how they chose who did this, but it comes across to us as if these people were enjoying doing what they were doing, because they were using a shotgun.

“You do not kill dogs with a shotgun.”

Hull didn’t want to identify the reserve where Trooper was found, but said the shooting had been going on for a couple of weeks. A dump at the reserve had a pile of dead dogs that was lit on fire, she said.

“I wouldn’t say all the reserves do it, but a lot of them do it,” said Hull, who has been operating her rescue for seven years.

The dog shoots are done to reduce the packs that form due to a lack of spaying and neutering on various reserves, Hull said.

“These dogs are running around starving to death and they start to pack up,” Hull said. “Then they start going after kids and you know across Canada there’s been a number of kids killed by dogs.

“That (change needs to start) at the council level. They have to start putting in their own bylaws to protect their people and protect their kids.”

Many of the dogs brought to Winnipeg by several rescue groups aren’t aggressive, and non-aggressive dogs are being killed as well, Hull said.

“(Trooper) was given phenomenal amounts of pain medication and he was still crying,” she said. “But with all the pain and agony he was in, there wasn’t an ounce of aggression in him.

“You’d think he’d be growling and not want you to touch him after all he’d been through.”

Hull will be launching a website called Trooper’s Law and petitioning the government to take action.

“I’m hoping we can work with reserves to convince them to start bringing in their own laws, just like we have in our towns and our cities — bylaws that state you can only have two dogs per household, they have to be spayed and neutered, and you have to keep them confined to your property,” she said.

Russell has already started a similar petition on her Pawtipster’s Facebook page.

“I completely understand that these dogs get wild and are dangerous to people, but there are more humane ways to do population control than what they’re doing,” said Russell, who founded the Pawtipsters animal abuse tipline that works in co-operation with Winnipeg Crime Stoppers.

Hull and Russell said many Winnipeg residents can’t believe dog shoots exist.

“It’s disgusting and it’s horrible, but people need to know,” Hull said.