A new path for Manitoba’s free-roaming dogs

The recent death of a well-known animal rescue volunteer and advocate near a remote Manitoba community believed to have aggressive free-roaming dogs has prompted an outpouring of grief. As the circumstances of her death are investigated, people have been sharing stories about her work while calling for preventative measures and long-term solutions.

For decades, Manitobans have responded to free-roaming animal crises with extraordinary generosity. Rescue organizations, communities, staff, volunteers and donors have saved countless animals through compassion, dedication and financial support. Together, they form a remarkable network of compassion.

But compassion has its limits.

Many of the people closest to these challenges have spoken openly about the emotional toll of responding to crisis after crisis. The future cannot continue to depend on volunteers, charities and communities managing problems that continually recreate themselves. Perhaps it’s time to look at things through a wider lens.

According to the World Health Organization, a concept known as One Health is an integrated approach that recognizes the health of people, animals and ecosystems is closely connected. It recognizes that protecting community health, improving animal welfare and caring for the environment are often parts of the same solution rather than separate goals. If those systems are interconnected, then lasting solutions should be interconnected as well.

Here in Manitoba, the Manitoba Animal Alliance has adopted a One Health approach, recognizing that animal well-being is closely tied to community wellness. The government has recognized the value of One Health by supporting one of the Winnipeg Humane Society’s programs, making it the province’s principal investment in this approach.

It’s an encouraging start, but Manitoba now has an opportunity to build on that foundation through broader provincial and federal investment in collaborative, community-based prevention initiatives driven by Indigenous communities, rescue organizations, researchers and other partners.

Free-roaming dogs are not simply an animal welfare issue — they are a public health issue.

Communities can be affected by dog bites and injuries, zoonotic disease, reduced use of public spaces, environmental contamination, increased pressure on rescue organizations and veterinary services, and the ongoing strain these issues place on communities.

There is also the suffering of the dogs themselves. Descended from a partnership between humans and wolves that began thousands of years ago, dogs are sentient, empathic, intelligent and highly social animals that enrich our lives and, in many households, are members of the family.

Their well-being matters not only because it affects humans, but because their lives have value in their own right.

That is one reason why it is difficult to accept some of the extreme measures sometimes taken in Manitoba.

Research led by the University of Saskatchewan’s Western College of Veterinary Medicine found that culling has little long-term impact on dog populations, dog bites or disease transmission.

By contrast, through a sustained, community-led approach, one Indigenous community that was studied reduced its dog population by 50 per cent, roaming dogs by 90 per cent and reported dog bites from six to 10 annually to just one. The researchers concluded that lasting progress depends on community engagement, education, partnerships, veterinary access and sustained investment — not one-size-fits-all solutions.

There already exists an encouraging example. With federal government support, Matawa First Nations Management in northern Ontario developed an Indigenous-led Animal Wellness Services program built on One Health principles that integrates community leadership, veterinary care, education and long-term planning. In 2026, Matawa published Caring for Our Dogs Together, openly sharing its experience so other communities can build on what has been learned.

In the days following the tragedy in Manitoba, Indigenous groups, Manitoba’s animal welfare community and other partners have been sharing similar ideas that sound more like strategic plans than social media posts — prevention instead of perpetual crisis response, stronger partnerships, community-led solutions, more funding and long-term thinking.

With so many people with first-hand experience pointing in the same direction, it’s probably time for a larger discussion.

Rather than viewing dog overpopulation solely as an animal welfare issue, a better start might be to start calling it a community wellness issue — because it touches public health, community safety, environmental stewardship and animal well-being all at once.

That shift creates room for broader partnerships among communities, rescue organizations, researchers, governments, philanthropic organizations and Manitobans who have already demonstrated extraordinary compassion.

If this difficult moment inspires greater collaboration, shared learning, provincial and federal investment — and a willingness to learn from the people already leading this work — it may also become the moment Manitoba embraces a made-in-Manitoba approach to free-roaming dog wellness, one that creates a stronger future for communities, people and the dogs that have shared our lives for thousands of years.

Tamara Bodi enjoyed a career in strategic communications before stepping aside to take her dogs on longer walks.