Some animal lovers are speaking out quite forcefully about the sled dogs being put down at Whistler. I am an animal lover and I come from a whole family of animal lovers. I don't condone what happened, but I do understand why it happened. Someone saw the Olympics as a good opportunity to start a dog-sledding business. It takes quite a few dogs and they are usually special breeds – ones that love to run. The business crashed after the Olympics was over. The cost and work involved in maintaining a large pack of dogs was prohibitive for a business swimming in red ink. I haven't heard anyone come up with an option they could have used. It may have been more humane to put the dogs down - as the SPCA does with our blessing - than to allow them to starve to death.
We had an Alaskan Malamute some years ago. My husband brought him home when we lived in Surrey. Lobo was a BEAUTIFUL dog – black and white with a heavy coat and a huge mane, like a lion. He was a very placid dog who really didn’t bond with anyone in particular – not even my husband or “Doctor Doolittle” as I sometimes refer to him. Lobo also didn’t bark, which was nice for us but with his bulky appearance and not very friendly attitude toward strangers, he did intimidate some surprising people. He just occupied the fenced back yard. We had no real understanding of these dogs. However, one trait soon became apparent – he loved to run! If the gate was opened and unattended, even for moments, he would take off for freedom and a good run. If Lobo noticed that our back door opened simultaneously with the opening of the front door, he would bolt into the house, up the stairs and out the front door and on his way. We could call him back to no avail. The only option was to take the car and follow his trail or search the streets. When we caught up with him, it was usually because he had run out of enthusiasm. I would just open the car door and he would come over, jump in and sit proudly on the passenger seat and ride home in style.
We went to Yuma for a short holiday. We had a friend, who worked for the company, come to house (and animal) sit for us. Wouldn’t you know while Al was there, Lobo got an opportunity to go for a run. It seem he ran all the way to a shopping centre about a mile from our place. One large complex in the place had been turned into a flea market. Lobo didn’t stop to buy a ticket when he went in to look things over. He walked around until he found someone selling rabbits. He thought it was lunch time so settled in for a fresh rabbit meal. Much later, our daughter located him at the pound. We got a phone call while in Yuma telling us that we would have to pay for bailing him out of the pound and also for the cost of his lunch – an expensive one as we had to pay for the emotional trauma of that event too!
Shortly after that we dog-sat with a small terrier named Pepper. Pepper and Lobo became good friends, so Pepper became a permanent companion for Lobo. When we moved to the farm, my husband fenced a large area for a dog run for those two dogs. They had a nice big dog house out there too. Even Doctor Doolittle couldn’t take Lobo out unless he was on a leash. Pepper just stuck with Lobo wherever he was.
One summer my husband came home from a trip to the USA, on crutches, with a broken foot. We had a thunder and lightning storm that night. I woke up to hear a strange noise in the yard and looked out the bedroom window. There appeared to be a dark shadow at the corner of the dog fence. Putting on my kimono I went out and see what was happening. Turned out the big dog had gotten frightened and taken a run at the fence, getting his head through the small mesh opening and there he was stuck! I pulled and tugged from both ends, but couldn’t budge him. I had to go back into the house and wake my husband to come out (on crutches) to see what the two of us could do. Doctor Doolittle pushed on Lobo’s head and I pulled on the other end and between us we got the dog unstuck. So we both went back to bed. A while later I again heard the strange noise and sure enough the dog had tried to run through the fence of the other side of his yard!
Out in the country Lobo’s runs were looked on quite differently, as people who raise sheep and chickens don’t take roaming dogs lightly, as they can do big damage to their animals. Lobo and Pepper only got loose occasionally. That changed though when we got Buddy, our shepherd/wolf cross. Bud was a well behaved pup who became a constant companion for Doctor Doolittle. However, when he got big enough he learned how to unlock the gate to the other dog’s pen. Lobo and Pepper’s “dog runs” became frequent and expensive. We would have to bail the two of them out of the pound. Eventually the two of them didn’t come back from a run. By that time we were relieved as our searches had become quite frequent and widespread. We do not know that Lobo had ever been used as a sled dog, however the breed is definitely used that way in the snowy north and he was certainly born with the urge to run!
Some years later I had the opportunity to go dog sledding near Quebec City. We were taken out into the country to Adventure Nor-bec, where Denis Montminy kept a pack of 160 well-bred and well-trained dogs. About 70 of them were the beautiful and powerful Alaskan Malamutes and the others were the slightly smaller Siberian Huskies. In a large field, each dog was tethered in his own area, with a dog house. They were socialized to their keepers and visitors. We were allowed to pet them. However, when the handlers began to get the sleds out and ready the dogs began pulling at their chains and howling, first one or two, then they all joined in. It was quite a chorus! The dogs were so eager to run that once they were unleashed from their doghouses, the handlers had to lift the dogs off their front feet to get them to the sleds. The dogs were strong enough on four feet to have taken off with the handlers in tow! As sled dogs, those animals were wonderful animals. I am sure none of them could have been rehabilitated into household pets. And as our experience proved, they were not the kind of animal that could be turned into a farm dog either. The daily upkeep on a huge pack of dogs has got to be very expensive, not an expense the SPCA would be happy to take on. The government would certainly not step up to take the responsibility for any part of the fallout created by the two week Olympic spectacle. If people hadn’t gotten so enthused over the two week wonder, they might not have been bedazzled into believing that we were going to have this wonderful tourist bonanza capable of supporting Olympic businesses forever after! The choice made may have appeared to be the only one available. Why do we need to carry this discussion on further? Let the animals rest in peace.
