End Sled Dog Cruelty - Ban Outdoor Chaining

The sled dog industry regularly chains dogs outside in extreme heat and cold temperatures, with merely plastic barrels as shelter. Tragically, these conditions are standard in the sled dog industry.

As the acclaimed documentary film Sled Dogs reveals, dogs are frequently chained outside in all weather extremes when they are not being forced to pull sleds. These social pack animals are denied the opportunity to socialize, play, and roam free. Instead, they are forced to eat, sleep, and eliminate in the same tiny area to which they are chained. Dogs frequently suffer from boredom, frustration, and depression—and when tourism declines and operators generate less profit, they may even be shot to death. In one high-profile case in Whistler, B.C., a dog sled operator shot 100 dogs, execution-style, in full view of one another, and dumped them into a mass grave.

Animal health experts encourage Canadians to keep pets indoors in extreme weather, but the unregulated sled dog industry gets away with chaining dogs outdoors in all weather extremes.

Ontario does not regulate the sled dog industry, and keeping dogs chained outdoors is legal in the province.

Please tell Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Solicitor General Michael Kerzner that these dogs deserve better than a life of misery on the end of a chain!

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The sled dog industry regularly chains dogs outside in extreme heat and cold temperatures, with merely plastic barrels as shelter. Tragically, these conditions are standard in the sled dog industry.

As the acclaimed documentary film Sled Dogs reveals, dogs are frequently chained outside in all weather extremes when they are not being forced to pull sleds. These social pack animals are denied the opportunity to socialize, play, and roam free. Instead, they are forced to eat, sleep, and eliminate in the same tiny area to which they are chained. Dogs frequently suffer from boredom, frustration, and depression—and when tourism declines and operators generate less profit, they may even be shot to death. In one high-profile case in Whistler, B.C., a dog sled operator shot 100 dogs, execution-style, in full view of one another, and dumped them into a mass grave.

Animal health experts encourage Canadians to keep pets indoors in extreme weather, but the unregulated sled dog industry gets away with chaining dogs outdoors in all weather extremes.

Ontario does not regulate the sled dog industry, and keeping dogs chained outdoors is legal in the province.

Please tell Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Solicitor General Michael Kerzner that these dogs deserve better than a life of misery on the end of a chain!