Damned Rabies

Vi have Rabies in Svalbard and because of that all the dogs need to Rabies-vaccinated every year. That’s just a rutine and you don’t think more that. But now Rabies really came part of our everyday life.

In Svalbard all the polar dogs need to be on leash always, but dogs on other races can be free otherwise except in the period from 15. of May until 15. of August. But, the dogs which can be kept free need to be under the control, not disturbing people or animals. There isn’t any excuses for a dog to chase reindeer or ptarmigan or disturb dog sledges or skiers. The owner who lets his dog to run free is responsible to keep eye on his dog.

A polar fox with Rabies bit one person in the town and after that there has been found some polar foxes and reindeer infected by Rabies. To avoid disease to spread to dogs and people all the dogs need to be hold on leash now.

In last three years time I have spend houndred of hours on the mountains with my dog. That has been the point for me to have a dog: To go out with it and enjoy the fantastic surrounding we’re having here. My dog just loves to run around. He can just run around and around in circels without any visible reason. To have speed is fun, running itself is fun. But that’s now illegal, he can’t be running anywhere, he need to be kept on leash. By following rules strickly he can’t even play properly with other dogs, because that’s pretty fustrating if you need to keep your dog all the time on leash. He also loves swimming, but even that’s impossible if he need to be on leash (of course he can’t swim now in winter, but there is coming spring again). We don’t have any place here to leave dogs on other races than polar dogs legally to run free and play together.

It’s not only my dog who need to kept on leash over next winter - it’s also me who can’t be running free on tundra and enjoying playing dogs.