100 Dogs Killed in the Headlines
We were shocked to hear that a tour company in British Columbia put down their 100 dogs last spring after a drop in business. This is so opposite of what we believe in and how we have spent the last 18 years developing our own tour business with our extended family of dogs. While the headlines are likely exaggerated, the basic fact that someone was faced with a situation of too many dogs and not enough money to feed them is a tragedy. What we can do as responsible pet owners is to set an example of what good care is. We have dedicated our entire working lives to good care. We hope that others have benefited from our example, but we can’t tell everyone else how they should behave.
Here is a glimpse of our kennel and the decisions we have made to care for our dogs in the best way we can:
Dogs have a normal lifespan of 15 years. That makes a third of their life as old dogs. When you get a dog, it is a commitment for the next 15 years. If you are in the tour business, you are eventally going to have a lot of old dogs. A commitment to keeping our old dogs healthy and happy is an example how we manage our kennel in general. With this kind of commitment it is not possible to get our operation beyond a scale that bad luck, a poor economy or poor winters could lead to a choice of having to put them down.
A third of our kennel is over 10 years old. Sled dogs love to work. If they are healthy and in shape, they can work as happily as a young dog until at least 12 or 13. Most of our older dogs are still running, although as they get older a couple need a little more time off between runs to rest. Our philosophy is that if they are not happy, we change something to make them happy. They get great veterinary care. They get an ideal geriatric training and working schedule. They get love and respect. Working and vitality give them self respect and help keep their status within their peers in the kennel. The old ones live here happily until they die of natural causes or are at the end of their life and are suffering and need to be put down. We have had many that have reached fifteen or sixteen years old! They get to run as long as they are able and happy to do it. We start our training very early in the fall and go very slow for a couple months so the older dogs can get in shape without any pain. Anyone who has been here will tell you how happy all the dogs are, even the old ones. Boulder is 12 years old and loves nothing more than to run another day. I hope I feel that good when I am eighty! People think he is a puppy, he is so enthusiastic. All the dogs that were born here or given a home here have lived here until they were very old or died of natural causes. When a dog dies here, it is a traumatic experience for everyone. The ones who have died in the past live on in our hearts. Here is a tribute to a few of them:
Andy—lived here until the age of 16. Loved running so much, that he was able to run with all the young dogs through age 14, then spent his 15th year running some of the slower trips. He got to retire in the girls area, where he was a favorite.
Scooby—lived until 16. Most of the sled dogs don’t like to live inside our house. They are happy in the kennel with their friends and family. Scooby loved the house, so she got to retire in the house, where she was happy, when she was 15. She loved to yip, howl and make a ruckus. She also had a great sense of humor and once dragged one of our guests--who did not show her the proper respect-- down into a mud hole.
Krummekakke—lived until 15. She pulled so hard! A heart murmur finally caught up with her at age 13 and she had to retire, which she hated. We still hooked her up with the over-14 crowd, and she would trot slowly down to the road to pick up our girls from the school bus. Nothing could make her happier in her forced retirement.
Petey and Elvis—lived here until age 15. They were brothers, next-door neighbors, shared a dog box when we travelled, ran together and loved each other as brothers. They were such great dogs and we miss them. In the end, they got old together, sick at the same time, and rode together on their last trip to the vet.
In the end, Mary and I held them all as life passed out of them. Those were some of the saddest moments of our lives. After spending many years with them as they pulled us around and we were able to be a part of their sled dog world, I would rather take my own life than have to face killing one of my own dogs while he is still in the prime of his life.
We have spent our entire working life committed to making our business fit the needs of our dogs. We decided a long time ago to keep our business at the scale where we could manage things ourselves. If we ever had to go out of business, we could still find homes for the dogs that we couldn’t afford to keep. As a business owner, this has meant that our business does not make much or any profit, depending on the year. The choices we have made to limit the number of dogs in the kennel, limit the number of trips in a season and per day, pay our staff to start working in September, rather than December, in order to get the necessary training for the older dogs to be happy and healthy, and a hundred other decisions that make more work and less profit for us have all been made to keep the dogs happy. Anything else would have been unacceptable. For us it would be like putting our children to work in a sweatshop. If we make a profit now, it is only through a lot of hard work and a bit of luck with the weather, but that is our choice. Most of the people who get into it feel the same way. It is too much work and not enough profit to attract anyone else but true dog lovers. Within any group there are some who do not have the judgment to make good decisions. All of the pet groups had members who do not live up to the standards of the group.
All we can do as a responsible people is control what we do ourselves and set an example of how things can be done well and hope that others follow this example. As consumers we can make choices, like buying eggs, chicken, pork and beef from a source that we know takes good care of their animals. Our society values a bargain, so we are attracted to cheap meat and eggs. The conditions that the modern market encourages for the animals are brutal. Mary’s family used to raise hogs. They were a small family farm and cared for their animals well. Now the market for pork does not allow for something so “inefficient.” When I searched for the article about the 100 sled dogs killed, the next google entry down was “60,000 chickens die in a building collapse.” What are that many birds doing in one place? Our girls raise a dozen chickens for eggs. They live in an enclosure large enough to forage outside, have social interaction, and be chickens. Although we do not feel as deeply for our chickens as we do for our dogs, it is still unthinkable that thousands of chickens are housed in one place. But that is the market we Americans have created for ourselves and have the power as consumers to change to something more humane.
We hope that all pet owners take better care their pets. We hope that other dog sports and organizations make decisions that do not encourage culling. On a broader scale, we hope that consumers make a choice to support humane conditions for the meat we eat as omnivores. We hope that the human race takes better care of the oceans. We hope that sustainable fishing practices are encouraged by consumers so we don’t ruin the world’s fishery. We hope we take better care of the earth so its inhabitants can live. I have to believe that what we do can make a difference, but the choice has to come from us as individuals.
Dog sledding yesterday on our six inches of snow, we were lucky to see something rare. In December other years, we have come across lots of deer, big bucks, fishers, fox, coyotes, owls and lots of grouse, but there is always something new. The lead dog even caught a grouse once in her mouth at full tilt and kept running. Finally, after a mile or so, she got tired of the feathers and dropped it.
