The Fan Hitch Volume 9, Number 2, March 2007

Journal of the Inuit Sled Dog

In This Issue....

From the Editor: Who Will Share Our Vision?

ISDI Launches New Partnership in Nunavik

Qimmiit Utirtut's First Litter

A Real Inuk

Update: Sledge Dog Memorial Fund

Recollections of the Doggy Man

Sledge Dogs of The Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey, 1947-50

Fan Mail

In the News 

Video Reviews:
Secrets of Antarctica
Wolf Dog
Return of the Qimutsiit
Dogs That Changed the World

Product  Review: Leather Mittens by Sterling Glove

Tip for the Trail: It's in the Bag

IMHO: One Brick at a Time


Navigating This Site

Index of articles by subject

Index of back issues by volume number

Search The Fan Hitch


Articles to download and print

Ordering Ken MacRury's Thesis

Our comprehensive list of resources

Talk to The Fan Hitch

The Fan Hitch home page

ISDI home page


Editor's/Publisher's Statement
Editor: Sue Hamilton
Webmaster: Mark Hamilton
The Fan Hitch, Journal of the Inuit Sled Dog, is published four times a year. It is available at no cost online at: https://thefanhitch.org.

The Fan Hitch
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This site is dedicated to the Inuit Dog as well as related Inuit culture and traditions. It is also home to The Fan Hitch, Journal of the Inuit Sled Dog.
In the News....

The following is reprinted, with permission, from the Chinook Project brochure:

The Chinook Project 
Atlantic Veterinary College 
University of Prince Edward Island

The Chinook Project
The Chinook Project began as a pilot project in 2006, with a request from the community of Kimmirut, on the south coast of Nunavut's Baffin Island, and a two-year grant from the Sir James Dunn Animal Welfare Centre at UPEI.

Kimmirut, like many communities in the Canadian north with limited or no access to veterinary care, was experiencing difficulties controlling an increasing and increasingly disruptive local dog population. They were also having problems keeping community dogs healthy.

The Chinook Project took veterinarians and veterinary students from the Atlantic Veterinary College at UPEI, along with essential equipment and supplies, to Kimmirut for one week in the summer of 2006.

The team ministered to 70 per cent of the dog population, performing a variety of veterinary services, including spays, neuters, vaccinations, and dewormings. The team set up a surgical clinic in the local school kitchen, but often performed vaccinations and deworming “on the road”.


Spays and castrations were performed with some seriously interested 
onlookers - future veterinarians perhaps?             photo: Magrath

The Chinook Project is a unique interdisciplinary project at UPEI, bringing together disparate faculties of Arts and Veterinary Medicine. Chinook participants kept journals during their northern mission. These journals provided the "raw material" that, with the help from an English professor, have become polished pieces of creative non-fiction. These pieces will be collected to form a book about the Chinook Project experience.

The Next Step
The Chinook Project has received inquiries about and requests for their services from other northern communities. The project will travel to Cambridge Bay in the summer of 2007.

After Cambridge Bay, the current project grant expires. However, evidence suggests that there is a definite need for the Chinook Project to continue - both to provide services to new communities and to return to those communities already visited to help maintain veterinary care.

In order to continue to provide this valuable service, the Chinook Project must seek sponsors and funding.

Chinook Project Coordinators
Dr. Lisa Miller, Associate Dean, AVC
Dr. Jane Magrath, Department of English, UPEI

For More Information
The Chinook Project
Office of the Associate Dean, AVC
University of Prince Edward Island
Charlottetown, PE  C1A 4P3
E-mail: Jane Magrath: jmagrath@upei.ca
E-mail: Lisa Miller: lmiller@upei.ca

* * * 

Unidentified Disease Strikes Down Dogs in Ulukhoktok

On February 28, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's (CBC) online northern news service reported an unidentified fatal illness in sled dogs in the Northwest Territories community of Ulukhaktok on Victoria Island. The deaths began in August, 2006 and one musher who said his dogs were vaccinated, was reported to have lost a dozen animals. There were no details about any investigation into the deaths. Inquiries made by The Fan Hitch have not yet revealed any particulars.

Ed. Note: Ulukhoktok is one of two communities on Victoria Island. The other is Kaluktutiak (Cambridge Bay), where the Chinook Project, described above, is scheduled to visit this summer.

* * *

Qimmiit Utirtut Hits the Mainstream Press

On March 11, 2007 The Gazette (Montreal) published a substantial article about Qimmiit Utirtut, those involved and how the program has had a positive impact on so many in the community of Kangiqsualujjuaq in Nunavik.

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