Whistler sled dog owner says video taken out of context, animals aren’t suffering
Posted February 20, 2021 3:32 pm.
Last Updated February 20, 2021 7:37 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
WHISTLER (NEWS 1130) — The owner of a dog sled tour company in Whistler is denying allegations that the animals are suffering and being chained and caged for long periods of time.
The Vancouver Humane Society released a video featuring secretly filmed drone footage of the dogs at Blackcomb Dogsled. The video seems to show some dogs pacing back and forth in cages, while one is seen running around the post they’re tethered to. The society suggests the purposeless, repetitive action indicates extreme boredom and frustration as it calls on the B.C. government to ban tethers.
But Jaime Hargreaves, who owns the dogs and operates the company, says the video shows just a snippet of their day.
“Five minutes earlier, you would have seen somebody taking the colourful fruit umbrellas off of every single dog house. You also missed dozens of dogs playing in the yard, having a great time, playing on the playground,” she tells NEWS 1130, adding the video is taken out of context.
“Never, not one single day of the year, never ever are they chained for a full day. These dogs get ample exercise, they get ample free time, they get ample playtime,” she says. “They’re not sitting here distressed on chains all day long, that is absolutely false.”
The voiceover in the footage claims the dog sled industry is “notorious” for not taking adequate care of the animals, arguing “We can never trust anyone who sees an animal as a commodity to treat that animal with respect.”
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Hargreaves, who says she’s been handling sled dogs for 12 years, claims less than five per cent of her kennel is on tethers.
“These dogs are not on chains all day long, absolutely not. They do need to be fed individually. They do need to sleep individually. They do need to be cared for properly. However, they’re out socializing and playing.”
Hargreaves says the drones flying above the dogs would have been unsettling for them, contributing to the behavior the humane society pointed out. At the end of the street, there is a sign advertising free kennel tours, so there wasn’t a need to use the drones in the first place, she adds.
She says she doesn’t believe tethering should be banned because it’s an appropriate tool in certain situations. However, she adds she always does what’s best for the dogs.
