BAD MOVE, OTTAWA! Parks Canada is ending its search-and-rescue dog programme in Banff National Park, cutting the sole dog handler role as part of public service cuts, and the backlash is fierce, the BBC reported.
For 55 years, rescue dogs worked the Canadian Rockies, sniffing out skiers and hikers buried by avalanches and finding kids who wandered away from campsites. Banff welcomes more than four million visitors a year.
The last dog on the job, a German Shepherd named Leroy, retired in August. In seven years he helped track 156 people, found 57 who were lost, and helped solve two murders. A new dog was trained and ready before Parks Canada gave notice last week that the programme was going, part of C$145m in budget cuts, local paper the Rocky Mountain Outlook reported.
Parks Canada calls it a “difficult decision” and says “search and rescue operations will continue to be delivered” through other means. More than 5,000 people have signed a petition to bring it back, started by local Conservative MP William Stevenson: “How could they possibly make such a bad choice in where to cut?”
Retired handler Scott Ward, 73, who spent 17 years in the role, put it best, quoting the old warden who trained him: “You can make an armpit smell like a lilac bush and you can put a man on the moon, but nothing can replace the nose of the avalanche dog.”
Featured image: AI-generated editorial illustration by Bugle Blast.
Sources: BBC News
Leave a Reply