Foreword
Beginning of August 2024, the Finnish newspaper Lapin Kansa published an article* about a local Husky-Farm in Inari. And exposed an ugly truth behind the sled dog industry.
(* you can find the free article translated in German, Spanish and French. Please use google translate for an English version: Mitarbeiter eines Hundeschlittenunternehmens in Inari berichten von leidenden Tieren und ausstehenden Löhnen – "Ein Gulag für Hund und Mensch" | Lapin Kansa)
A discussion about working with and keeping sled dogs followed. Other Finnish Entrepreneurs, working with sled dogs, published statements raising the point, that animal welfare in Finland does not have the standard it should have. Also more articles about the sled dog industry itself got published by Lapin Kansa*.
Also this article*, published on the 21.08.24, by the Finnish animal welfare society SEY, gives an overview about the Industry
If you want to get a vivid image about the dark parts of the sled dog industry in Finland:
please read these articles above, before continuing with this post.
What we want to talk about now is:
Making business with sled dogs A flourishing industry in the north with very little regulations
The laws for animal welfare in Finland, Norway and Sweden are insufficient. All three countries are seen as role-models for a healthy way of living with nature, representing high standards for human well being (education, social affairs, health & wealth). Unfortunately this doesn´t always apply to animals. Sweden has the strictest laws when it comes to working with sled dogs. This also helps to expose exploitation. In the last year (2024), two bigger scandals were brought to medial attention and dogs have been confiscated.
Detailed information about these cases, can be found here:
1. https://nsd.se/nyheter/kiruna/artikel/sladhundsforetag-i-kiruna-polisanmalt-for-misstankt-djurplageri/jow3gv1l
Unfortunately these articles are either in German or Swedish (same like the Finnish one). Getting an overview on this huge topic in English is hard. But English is needed, as it can be used internationally, so tour operators, travel agencies and customers can be educated and understand the situation.
Because there is almost no exisiting English summary , you will find an informative flyer about the importance of animal-welfare during sled-dog activities here:
GOING ON A HUSKY RIDE
It is available in english, german, spanish and french.
This text is divided in 8 sections:
The Finnish Animal Welfare Act
The Finnish animal welfare act was renewed in 2023 and is in force since beginning of 2024. Some things have changed. E.g. there is now a registration needed, if you own a dog. You need to chip them, issue an animal passport and register them with the national food authority. So there is a need to control, how many dog owners are living in Finland, and how many dogs being kept at the same place. Still it doesn´t make a huge difference: because you can keep as much dogs as you like. There is no limitation and the way of keeping this dogs is attached to just a very few rules.
This new legislation tries to find a starting point to controlled „breeding“. As an outsider you can´t imagine how easy it is, to grow the number of dogs, within a short time period. You can buy or breed dogs, set up a kennel and start a business. Which leads to the point that there are places in Finland with 400+ dogs in one farm only.
The registration alone doesn´t change anything. It just means that you have to register every new born or purchased dog. That you need to put money and effort into it. It is more a symbolic, bureaucratic act. Which maybe has good intentions, but doesn´t change much for the dogs at the moment as long as its still allowed to breed and kill without regulation.
Killing Dogs in Finland is easy
In Finland it is allowed to kill your own animal, without medical reason (Finnish Animal Welfare Act, Section 9, Article 64: „The animal must be killed as quickly and painlessly as possible using a method and technique suitable for killing it.“) If you look further into the law-text, there is no specification. Anyone can kill animals.
Only when the animal is offically euthanised, you need to have special skills.
Also there are no limitations about „when to kill an animal“. So no medical reasons or suffering mentioned. Which means, you can kill the animal anytime you want, without any reason. This again is the perfect breeding ground (in both senses), for making a profitable business.
The only difference to the old welfare act, when it comes to killing animals, is to be found in Section 9, article 67: „An operator who engages in animal killing activities, or an animal owner or keeper who regularly kills large numbers of animals at once, must notify the regional administrative agency in whose jurisdiction the activity is mainly carried out in writing well in advance of starting or ending the activity, or if the activity changes substantially.“. Literally it is just saying: if you kill animals in a bigger scale you need to announce it to the authorities beforehand. Again, not really a change. It is a try to implement a control mechanism. Sadly when it comes to the practical site, non of this is really having an impact.
Besides this there are not many requirements you need to fulfill when: Running a Husky Farm
For running a Husky-Farm (with unlimited dog numbers) you dont have to bring any kind of education or certificate that shows, you know what you are doing. The housing rules for sled dogs are also the bare minimum. If the dog-fur is not thick enough, dogs need insulated huts. But this doesn´t apply to most dogs living here. Keeping dogs on chains (what f.e. is forbidden in Sweden) is allowed in Finland and Norway.
At this point we do NOT want to talk about chain-keeping sytsem.
What matters more are all other things happening at the Kennel: have a look at the actual caretaking of the dogs, and check also other important things (see the PDF).
What we want to talk about is how mistreatment of dogs can still be allowed ?
And actually be advertised through social media and travel agencies while we are living in the 21st century? The „scandal farm“ we talked about in the beginning of this article, was advertised by Lonley Planet under the headline „how to travel responsibly“.
How can this be? How can it be that tour operator, travel agencies and glossy travel brochures still supporting animal exploitation and actually selling them as „responsible“? It is not done out of malice. It is simply due to a lack of information and insight.
Yes, the law is weak. Therefore the veterinarians have almost zero chance to actual interfere when they witness animal abuse. Because most of this is still within the legal or „grey“ area.
Beside the low law standarts for keeping animals and making money with it, another topic is
the responsible treatment of workers, guides and handlers. Guides & Handlers and trusting Guests
Husky-Farms are not running by themselves. Someone needs to take care of the dogs and guests. During high winter season, guides are hired. Sometimes with very little experience in the north/ with dogs. What per se is not bad, because they could learn.
Unfortunately sometimes these „trainees“ end up in responsible guiding positions. Taking care of animals and guests, trustful that their guide is equipped with knowledge and experience.
This happend to us as well 10 years ago, when we started as trainees, working in Scandinavia. Guests trusted, we knew what we were doing. They thought we were skilled and well prepared. But we weren´t. We had no knowledge about the flora and fauna, we were bloody beginners in the north. We had no experience within winter conditions, orientation, animal care, cooking, guest management, etc. And we were in responsible guide position. Responsible for many lives. Humans and animals, within an environment, where small mistakes can quickly lead to emergency situations, injuries or worse.
And what we also had no clue about, when we started working in the north, is the actual work with dogs. We had some basic background experiences, but still: this world of dogs – especially in the north – is full of myths.
Myths about how a dog should be treated are spread from guide to customer.
How should unexperienced guides make the difference about what is true or not?
How should customers make a difference? Customers trust their guide and new guides trust their instructors. Within this circle there is no sound training knowledge. Because you dont need a education to actually do this work. Most answers we got from guests during the last years have been: „well, I thought this is how it is done in the north“.
And this is exactly what we thought as well. This is how we started. We thought these farms were advertising animal welfare, doing a responsible job. But sometimes they even do the complete opposite: no proper medical care for injured dogs, working with unexperienced guides in responsible positions, spreading missinformation torwards customers. All ending in the result, that dogs are suffering. And big travel agencies supporting this.
There is no bad big or small farm. This kind of behavior can happen anywhere and there is no guarantee for real welfare. And also workers, guides and helpers sometimes get exploited and mistreated. The only difference to a dog: they can stand up and leave.
Dogs can not. So they need YOU.
You as customers, you as travel agencies or journalists – standing up for them and
making this topic visible.
Just because the marketing with howling dogs under the northern lights was well done over the last twenty years, i doesn´t mean all things are bright up here. Change needs to happen. For true, authentic and individual experiences with sled dogs.
We are foreigners. So what would we know about „true and authentic“?
We moved to this amazing place in Finland, 5 years ago. Before this we worked for and with other farms. We made our own experiences. Me, Josi, I started working with sleddogs as therapy dogs in Germany and southern Sweden in 2013. And so my first focus in the work with animals was always and will always be: Human & Dog interaction.
Sled Dogs are exactly this: DOGS. Normal, silly, lovely, lively dogs. Of course, they have different needs than other breeds. And i would not suggest them as a beginner breed. And you need to fit some framework conditions, before thinking about living together with a northern breed. They are stubborn, they NEED movement, they need social life. But they also love cuddles, a warm couch and permanent reference persons, they can build trust in.
Kind of a Summary
There are a lot of topics you need to take care about, when looking into the well being of sled dogs:
° How are the dogs kept?
° How are the people educated/ what kind of experience do they have?
° How many people do work there (also beside the busy winter time)?
° What happens to old/ sick dogs/ dogs not willing to work anymore?
° What way of interaction/ social life happens?
° How are the dog´s needs for psychological and communicational stimulation fullfilled?
° How are the dogs needs for movement fulfilled during the times of the year, when its too hot to train?
° How are the resting and training hours of the dogs? Do they get enough movement or too
much?
These are just the minimum basic questions, you should keep in mind.
Please see the attached flyer (in english, french, german and spanish) as a quick summary of what you can take care of, when doing a Husky-Ride.
What happens up here, to the mans best friend?
Come and visit a NOT well managed sled dog farm during summer: No shadow to hide from the heat, depending on how many workers are there, also no free-run possibility. Maybe not even clean water and maybe not even food everyday. Wounds, that are not taken care of. Cruelty towards the dogs, „care-taker“ injuring them on purpose, by hitting or kicking them.
But also: not every farm is like this.
Most of the farms we know personally today, do their best to keep the dogs needs fulfilled and balanced. There is change happening ! What we want to achieve with this post is that YOU, whoever is reading this, starts to question the picture that is presented to you.
There is no good or bad in here. Its about change! There are good farms in Lapland. There are also good, big farms in Lapland. Run by „dog-people“, who actually know what they are doing. Because they are dedicated to this lifestyle, and dedicated to dogs. Not everyone is always right. Not everyone always does the best decisions and mistakes can happen. But people investing in new kennel areas, building insulated huts for the winter nights, implementing free run areas, starting to re-home dogs or building appropriated retirement areas for the old ones. People starting to see the connection between animal welfare and a better business.
Because guests getting aware of that. Guests start to question – and want to be assured, the dogs are well taken care of. All year around.
Sleddog Sanctuary & Rehoming
Something personal in the end.
In the future we want to focus on founding a sled dog sanctuary, with rehoming sled-dogs for other farms, that doesnt have a rehoming program. And to create a retirement home for sled dogs, which can not stay at their old place.
Is this the solution for everything? Of course not – but its a first step.
We want to found a NGO – a sled dog sanctuary where old dogs can find a place to life and still agile dogs can find a new home. Because every life matters.
We know the common point of view, when it comes to rehome dogs:
„Sleddogs are not meant to be rehomed/ retired. They will be unhappy. Sled dogs belong to the north. They need to work and if they can´t work, they will suffer. They are not happy on a couch. They can never life with humans in the south. Sled dogs are no pets. Sled dogs fight, they are aggressive, you need to know how to handle them. I cant give a sledddog away – i rather shoot him, than rehoming him, because its not fair to the dog. Its not sustainable, because old dogs just consume resoruces“
We believe, that rehoming and/ or creating a appropriated retirement place for the dogs will work,
IF all other needs are fullfilled and the dog lives in an stimulating environment !
And living permanently on the same few squaremeters, where you shit, pee and eat. Without any social interaction, bare weather protection and no psychological enrichement. Maybe not even medical treatment, regulary feeding or fresh water.
Maybe under violence and strong abuse coming from you „caretaker“.
That maybe is the point where we should start questioning
what a „stimulating environment“ actually means for a dog.
Finnish Animal Welfare act; section 5; article 37: „The animal's permanent holding place must be sufficiently spacious and otherwise suitable in terms of structure and equipment to satisfy the animal's physiological needs and the essential behavioral needs related to movement, play, rest, body care, eating, foraging and exploring the environment, as well as social relationships.“
Excellent writing, right on point! And sled dog sanctuary is definately needed, I'd love to be part of that!