traditional dog (qimmiq) in the Inuktitut language. RCMP dog killings Between 1950 and 1970, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police slaughtered Inuit sled dogs. The Inuit refer to this as the qimmiijaqtauniq. Estimates of the number of dogs killed range from 1,200 to 20,000. In some communities, elders have alleged that this destruction was conducted in order to intimidate the Inuit and to intentionally disrupt their way of life. In response to these allegations, in 2005 the RCMP conducted an internal investigation on the killings. Its report concluded that dogs were indeed killed, but for public health purposes – to remove sick, dangerous, and suffering animals. However, the report also acknowledged that the RCMP rarely followed ordinances that required dogs to first be captured and owners to be notified before killings, that owners had no recourse against unreasonable killings, and that the justification for killings were not always explained to the Inuit. The report denies that any dogs were killed as part of a plot against the Inuit. The Qikiqtani Inuit Association denounced the report as "biased, flawed and incomplete." The association later commissioned its own report, which criticized the RCMP's killing of dogs heavily while still finding no deliberate conspiracy against the Inuit. In August of 2019, Canadian Minister of Crown–Indigenous Relations Carolyn Bennett made a wide ranging apology to the Inuit of Baffin Island, including for the slaughter and forced decline of Inuit dogs. This was the third of a series of apologies made for the historic abuse, mistreatment, and forced relocation of the Inuit, and came with a CA$20 million donation to the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, of which $700,000 will go towards the annual Nunavut Quest dog sled race for 7 years. See also Portal:Dogs Native American dogs Alaskan Malamute American Eskimo Dog Northern Breed Group Siberian Husky References External links Canadian Eskimo Dog Club of Great Britain Canadian Inuit/Eskimo Dog Network Inuit Sled Dog International Canadian Inuit (Eskimo) Dog The Fan Hitch, Website and Journal of the Inuit Sled Dog The Inuit Dog: Its Provenance, Environment and History Spitz breeds FCI breeds Rare dog breeds Sled dogs Dog breeds originating in Canada Territorial symbols of Nunavut Dog breeds originating from Indigenous Americans