Regions: Sahtu Settlement Area, Qikiqtaaluk Region
Tags: social sciences, dogs
| Principal Investigator: | Baker, Tessa (2) |
| Licence Number: | 16105 |
| Organization: | University of Calgary |
| Licensed Year(s): |
2017
|
| Issued: | Jun 02, 2017 |
| Project Team: | Dr. Melanie Rock |
Objective(s): To evaluate the annual Sahtu veterinary program in four of the Sahtu communities (Colville Lake, Deline, Fort Good Hope, and Tulita).
Project Description: The objective of this research is to evaluate the annual Sahtu veterinary program in four of the Sahtu communities (Colville Lake, Deline, Fort Good Hope, and Tulita). This will be done by determining the reach of the program in each community (the number of dogs seen by the program out of the total number of dogs in each community), any changes in dog health and welfare, as well as understanding community members’ perspectives on dogs and veterinary services. These veterinary clinics have occurred annually since 2008 through the University of Calgary and in complete collaboration with and support from the communities of Colville Lake, Fort Good Hope, Tulita, Deline, and Norman Wells. Initial contact and communication - The 10th annual Sahtu veterinary clinics occurred in February 2017 in each community. The Principal Investigator (PI) has actively participated in these clinics as a veterinarian and interacted with members in each community through care for their dogs. In addition, the research team has met with each community leader to discuss the vet program and my interest in returning to evaluate the program this summer. All of the communities’ leaders (Colville Lake, Fort Good Hope, Deline, and Tulita) expressed their verbal consent to have the PI return and complete interviews with community members. Dog census and community questionnaire - In the summer of 2017 the PI will return to the communities of Colville Lake, Fort Good Hope, Tulita, and Déline to complete a door-to-door census and questionnaire. At the suggestion of the community leaders, the PI would like to return in June to Tulita and Fort Good Hope and in August to Colville Lake and Deline. The dog census will be done as part of the questionnaire. The questionnaire will be done in a door-to-door format so as to talk to community members who own dogs as well as those who do not. The questionnaire for non-dog owners will be 10 questions in length. For community members who own dogs, there will be an additional 10 questions related to their dogs (20 questions total). The questionnaire should take about 15 minutes to complete. There will be a consent form that will be reviewed with each participant to ensure they are comfortable prior to participating. Dog medical record analysis - The dog medical records collected through the veterinary clinics since 2008 will be analyzed for changes over the last ten years. Data categories include age, sex, weight, breed, diet, body condition, spay or neuter status, vaccination and deworming history, and physical exam findings. A member from each community will be a research assistant and help complete the dog census and door-to-door questionnaire. Community members have been active volunteers in the mobile veterinary clinics held in each community annually since 2008, and have shown a keen interest in dog care through these volunteer opportunities. Participants will be able to share their perspectives and concerns about dogs in their communities. Each community will be given any reports related to this project once they have been written. A presentation of the results will be done in each community at the 2018 veterinary clinics to gain feedback on the findings of the dog census and questionnaire. A final report will be circulated at the end of the project and, if funding allows, will be presented in person to each community. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from June 2, 2017 to September 30, 2017.
