Lapland’s Husky Safari Entrepreneurs are Struggling -Life of Thousands of Huskies Threatened
Safari owners see shooting professionally trained dogs as a last resort. Your help is needed.
‘Picture in your mind a perfect holiday with endless landscapes of white, untouched snow, northern lights dancing in the sky while group of wild dogs is taking you to experience a freedom and adrenaline from speed, dusty snow and changing beautiful landscapes.’
Exotic husky safaris have been a dream to come true for tourists visiting Finnish Winter Wonderland, Lapland. However, then came Covid -19 and now those dogs are calling for your help. If you don’t take actions now, all of that can be soon gone.
After watching Finnish document of Frozen Lake Husky -safari, I knew that something needed to be done and word spread across the world. I burst into tears together with husky safari’s owner Erika Zopf, when she said that her heart would be broken, if she needed to kill her dogs. They are her best friends and her whole life. What a massacre of killing 100 dogs would be. Erika sees it as her last option when everything else is tried.
Safari business has big annual costs
Each husky needs from one to two kilos of fresh meat daily during winter time when the weather can move between minus 20 to 30 degrees the whole season. Average costs of keeping 100 dog’s farm is 70 000 euros in a year. Training of professional safari dogs requires lots of time and resources so everything needs to keep rolling though there has been lack of tourism since last March.
After Covid-19 all tourism was lost from Lapland. Amount of Finnish people visiting in Lapland is not enough to keep entrepreneurs in business this winter. The season is very short and dogs still need feeding and training all year round. Erika herself lives in a modest tiny house without modern life luxury such as electricity and running water. She has given her whole life for her business and growing those dogs and now everything is under threat to be taken away.
Those dogs require lots of exercise and activity so finding new families is not an option. Various people are already gathering donated food and running godfather activity, but there are altogether hundred husky entrepreneurs and thousands of dogs in Lapland. We don’t know how long this Covid -19 situation will last, but these entrepreneurs are soon running out of time.
Huskies have always been big part of Lapland’s culture and part of that magic would die along those dogs. Without taking actions now, Lapland might never be the same again.
This is your time to help
If you feel that same warmth in your heart and sorrow in your soul when thinking about possible destiny of these dogs, let’s take actions and help these entrepreneurs together. I promise to donate all my profits from this story to support equally life of those thousands of adorable furry creatures. So let’s put those claps on work!
One Italian couple has also founded GoFundMe page; ‘Together to Save 100 huskies in Lapland’ where you can make your donations personally supporting directly Frozen Lake Husky Safari. So far, funds have been raised 2,630 euros and I know we can do much better. Let’s take actions to save these unique dogs and support this endangered entrepreneurship while we still can!
