Our Dog Sled Experience at Rancho Luna Lobos

Animal AdvocacyFebruary 28, 2019March 27, 2019 Leigh Scott

Our Dog Sled Experience at Rancho Luna Lobos

February 28, 2019

In recent years, people have begun to wrestle with human/animal interactions. Now, as never before, we are discovering the complex inner lives of animals and are asking serious questions about our relationships with them. We have begun to understand that animals should not be forced to live lives that are foreign to them or that result in cruel confinement or isolation. As a society, we have begun to reject the idea that killer whales should be confined to small pools and that tigers should be forced to leap through rings of fire for our entertainment.

As for me, personally, I am convinced that my mission for this stage of my life is to promote the well being of all animals and help to end their suffering at the hands of humans. As a vegan chef and a board member of Unitarian Universalist Animal Ministry, it’s a spiritual issue for me, and it’s one of the main reasons that I get up out of bed every morning.

Thorny Questions Regarding Human/Animal Interactions

It’s crystal clear to me that animals exist for their own reasons and that it’s not appropriate for humans to eat them or to exploit them for our own gain. After all, we can be perfectly healthy on a whole-food, plant-based diet, and shoes can be made with other materials besides leather. Still, in my view, ethical questions about human/animal interactions can sometimes be thorny. As with many things in life, the matter is not simply black and white; there can be challenging shades of gray. For example, when I was younger I used to own horses and loved exploring the world with them on trail rides. And yet I know that race horses can die on the tracks, and people can mistreat horses who are kept as working animals. In fact, my husband and I cancelled a trip to Havasu Falls last spring when we learned that the pack horses on that trail are often overworked, underfed, and otherwise abused by their wranglers. So is it okay to ride horses for pleasure, if the animals are well treated?

With these kinds of questions in mind, I wondered what my husband Mark and I would encounter on a “Dog Sled Experience” that we booked at Rancho Luna Lobos near Park City, Utah. Before visiting the ranch, we reviewed several online articles about dog sled racing and, not surprisingly, found that the sport has both ardent supporters and vocal detractors.

History of Dog Sledding

What we learned is that sled dogs have historically been important for transportation in arctic areas, hauling supplies and mail to rural areas that were otherwise inaccessible. The Alaskan Gold Rush strengthened interest in the use of sled dogs as transportation. And then in 1925, sled dogs gained worldwide fame when they helped to counteract a diphtheria outbreak in Nome by delivering the life-saving serum, running a 20-team relay across 700 miles of Alaskan wilderness. The Iditarod race was established in 1973 as a celebration of that event and is considered the premium sled dog race. It’s currently a 1,100-mile endurance event that normally lasts about eight or nine days.

Negative allegations about the sport were publicized in last year’s release of Sled Dogs, a documentary that accused the mushers in the Iditarod race of cruelty toward the canine competitors. The film raised concerns about overly grueling races, poor living conditions when the dogs are off the race track, and even the shocking execution of animals that are considered too slow. Fortunately, it appears that the resulting attention on the issue has brought about positive change. The Iditarod organizers have apparently implemented a “Best Care” kennel management program that outlines new requirements for shelter, tethers, nutrition, socialization, euthanasia and kennel size.

Conducting Our Own Assessment

After reading these articles, my husband and I decided to keep an open mind and see what we might find at Rancho Luna Lobos. We were curious to find out if the dogs at the kennel enjoy sufficient companionship (both canine and human), good living conditions, exercise, and adequate freedom and stimulation.

So a few days ago we met the dogs and mushers at the 55-acre ranch operated by a dog sled racer named Fernando, his wife Dana, and their four children. Upon our arrival at the ranch, Dana introduced us to some of the dogs and told us that she and her husband believe “every dog should live life, and that living a good life is a work of art.” This philosophy is woven throughout their operation, and you can see it on their sweatshirts, their marketing materials, and the way they treat their dogs.

The dogs at the ranch are amazingly diverse, and the pack contains a wide variety of breeds, colors, sizes, and temperaments. We met some of the dogs and heard a few of their stories. There are “Hollywood sled dogs,” the beautiful Siberian Huskies whose furry, athletic bodies are featured in movies. Then there’s Maya, a petite, tan-and-cream-colored, Husky/Greyhound mix who was an Iditarod champion in 2006 but is now retired. There’s Zoe, who loves the children who attend summer camp at the kennel but is still wary of adults because of abuse that she had suffered before she came to Luna Lobos. And there’s Humberto, a beautiful sled dog who happens to be blind. Of course, there are many other interesting dogs at the kennel, and you will need to visit Rancho Luna Lobos if you want to meet more of them.

Getting a Second Chance at Life

But there is one thing that almost all of the Luna Lobos dogs have in common: they got a second chance at life when they came to Rancho Luna Lobos. That’s because ninety percent of the dogs in the 54-animal pack are rescued animals. According to Dana, the majority of the dogs at Luna Lobos were dropped off on the doorstep or surrendered by their former owners. Sometimes Dana and Fernando have visited animal shelters and plucked out dogs who look like they might want to run. If the dogs do want to run, they are added to the race team; if they don’t, Dana says it’s not a problem; the ranch will find them really good homes. Their operating premise, according to Dana, is that “dogs should be dogs first. We want them to be happy, love life, and know that they can trust us and that we have their best interests at heart. And only if they 100% love it, they can be a sled dog second.”

After learning these basic facts about the dogs and the company’s operating philosophy, we jumped into a jeep-like vehicle on snow treads. Driven by one of the company’s mushers, we visited the dogs in the kennels and then climbed the hill to the spot where the dogs were waiting for their first sled run of the day. After being assigned to the dog sled team led by Yukon, a big, black dog, I sat down within the cozy canvas cover on the front of the sled, and Mark climbed onto the back with the musher. Our musher took us on a couple of laps around a small track along on the hilltop, with periods of running that were liberally interspersed with rest breaks, bathroom breaks, and sniffing breaks for the dogs. The scenery was spectacular, featuring panoramic views of the snow-covered Uinta mountains.

When our experience was over and we drove back to Park City, Mark and I reviewed what we had found.

Living conditions for the dogs: Excellent, even including a couple of climate-controlled cottages that provide shelter for the older and/or less hardy dogs.

Companionship for the dogs: Plenty of human and canine interactions. Dana reports that one of the dogs even howls to initiate a pack check several times each day, with each dog chiming in.

Exercise and stimulation: The dogs are allowed to run freely each day, just being dogs, as well as running when they are selected to be on the sled teams for tours. And for extra entertainment, the dogs in the cottages even have Netflix!

Retirement plan: The dogs who can no longer race are gradually scaled back from racing, first being assigned to run in the teams that are used for tours like the one we took, and eventually living a more leisurely life at the climate-controlled cottages. The retired dogs live the rest of their lives in comfort at the Rancho.

Educational outreach: The ranch offers summer camps for children, teaching the kids how to take good care of the dogs and how to reach for their own dreams as they grow up.

Bottom Line

My review of the ranch’s operations and their marketing materials has convinced me that the owners of Rancho Luna Lobos have a deep, spiritual connection to the work that they do — as reflected in this statement by Fernando:

“I have always felt a oneness with my dogs. I feel their heart and what their spirit is telling me. Looking into their eyes, the Creator shines through, speaking to me of compassion, determination, redemption, and trust. These animals I have been entrusted with constantly inspire me in my own walk to be more as a man, father, and husband. Their dedication and passion encourage me to push through those moments that test me.”

So my assessment is that there may be bad apples in the arena of sled dog racing (as in virtually every area of life), but mushers like Fernando and Dana are providing worthwhile lives for rescued dogs and are teaching both kids and adults how to appreciate these athletic dogs and also how to live artful lives. I am happy to support their work.

Giving Hope a Chance

Animal AdvocacyJanuary 24, 2019March 27, 2019 Leigh Scott

Giving Hope a Chance

January 24, 2019

On a recent trip to Key West, my husband and I were able to help a rescued hound dog named Hope get closer to her forever home. Here’s how it happened.

My husband Mark is a private pilot, and he likes to fill up the back seat of his plane with rescued animals whenever he can. A few days prior to our trip, Mark received an email message indicating that Hope needed to be transported from Myrtle Beach, SC, to Sussex, NJ. After a flurry of messages concerning the logistics, it was settled that we would pick Hope up in South Carolina and bring her to our home in Virginia — where we would hand her off to a second pilot who could take her the rest of the way to New Jersey.

Helping the Fur to Fly

As it turns out, transporting pets is a huge part of animal rescue. Rescue organizations often pull adoptable pets from high-kill shelters in rural areas and send the animals to other places where they have a much better chance of finding homes. People who live in affluent, urban areas are often surprised to find out that pet overpopulation and neglect is a serious problem in lower-income, rural areas. Sadly, many highly adoptable dogs and cats run loose on the streets in poorer communities and are often euthanized in high-kill shelters due to overcrowded facilities, lack of spay/neuter education, and inadequate funding. So part of the solution is to pull animals out of those overcrowded shelters, place them with volunteer foster parents, and then locate a new home in another area.

In many cases, animal rescue transport happens via car, with a series of volunteers each driving a segment of what could be a journey of hundreds — or even thousands — of miles. Ground transport can often take many long hours, with the pets confined in crates during the trip. But there is another way to transport the animals — by airplane, with pilots who monitor the transport clearinghouse run by Pilots N Paws®.

Happily, animal transport by airplane can often be completed within a few short hours, thereby minimizing the stress on the animals being transported. In Hope’s case, the trip from Myrtle Beach, SC, to her final destination in New Jersey is about 700 miles. That trip would have taken at least 11 hours by car and was much quicker by airplane. And often, as in our case, the pilot is making the trip anyway, so it makes sense to take advantage of the empty backseat. All that is needed is a way to connect the willing pilots with the animals in need — and that role is filled by Pilots N Paws®.

What is Pilots N Paws®?

Perhaps you know about Angel Flight or Air Charity Network, both of which provide free air transportation for people who need to reach specialized health care facilities or distant destinations due to family, community, or national crisis. Pilots N Paws® fills a similar need — although for Pilots N Paws®, the passengers are pets.

Pilots N Paws® is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that works to connect animal rescue organizations needing transport for a pet with volunteer pilots who are willing to assist with animal transportation. As stated on their website, “the intent of Pilots N Paws® is to provide an environment in which volunteers can come together and arrange or schedule rescue flights, overnight foster care or shelter, and all other related activities.”

It Truly Takes a Village to Save a Dog

Hope’s story is a great example of the team effort involved in rescuing a dog. A whole cast of characters helped to get Hope off the streets of Myrtle Beach, SC, and into her new home up north.

The effort to give Hope a second chance began when she was found roaming the streets of Myrtle Beach. She was skinny, hungry, and clearly in need of help. Soon the word of her plight traveled through a network of animal lovers, and Hope was accepted into the rescue program that’s run by a woman named Karyn at Safe and Sound Animal Rescue (SSAR) in New Jersey. Fortunately, a foster mom named Liz volunteered to provide a temporary home for Hope in Myrtle Beach. By the time we met Hope, Liz had kept Hope for five weeks — providing plenty of food, shelter, love, and training along the way.

On the appointed day of transport, Mark and I left Key West bright and early so that we could arrive in Myrtle

Beach by 1 pm. When we arrived, foster mom Liz brought Hope to us in the terminal and told us that she was just a bit teary eyed to send Hope on her way. At the same time, she was happy to know that Hope would be one step closer to her forever home. So, after taking some photos near the airplane with Liz and Hope, we loaded Hope into the back seat and clipped her into a travel harness.

Hope was a calm and cooperative traveler. It was an uneventful flight, and after a couple of hours we landed at our airplane’s home base in Gaithersburg, MD. With darkness descending by that time, we took Hope to our house for the night — with the plan to send her along to New Jersey the following morning. The next morning Hope and I met Chris, the pilot for the next leg of the journey, at the airport in Leesburg, VA. Chris loaded Hope into a travel crate in the back seat of a flashy, red and white airplane — and off they went. A few hours later, Chris landed in New Jersey and handed Hope’s leash to Karyn, the founder of SSAR. Karyn immediately got Hope settled into a new foster home — and we have now heard that she will be living there forever, because her foster parents have already decided to adopt her. That’s another exciting success story for SSAR, which has rescued more than 200 animals in the past five years!

Help Us Keep Hope Alive for Other Animals

Plenty of other homeless animals are in desperate need of the chance for a better life in a new home. If the mission described here touches your heart, you can help by sending a donation to SSAR via Paypal (at priceless68@aol.com) or to Pilots N Paws, both of which are 501(c)3 organizations.

Sea Shepherd: Saving the Seas! A Dinner with Captain Watson

Animal Rescue & Advocacy, EventsJune 18, 2018March 27, 2019 Leigh Scott

Sea Shepherd: Saving the Seas! A Dinner with Captain Watson

June 18, 2018

It’s not hard to convince me to have dinner at Great Sage in Clarksville, MD. It’s one of the few restaurants in our area that’s completely vegan. So instead of having (at most) one or two choices on the menu per a typical restaurant, I know that I can eat *everything* at Great Sage! And, as a bonus, it’s all delicious and nutritious. It’s definitely worth the hour-plus trek from northern Virginia, especially when there is a special menu or a notable speaker. So I was quick to make a reservation when I discovered that the restaurant was offering a dinner with Captain Paul Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Surprise: Sea Shepherd Cares About Cows

Sea Shepherd and Captain Watson first entered my radar screen several months ago when I watched the documentary called Cowspiracy. The tagline for Cowspiracy is “The Film that Environmental Organizations Don’t Want You to See.” The documentary follows filmmaker Kip Andersen as he uncovers the most destructive industry facing the planet today. No, it’s not transportation; it’s animal agriculture. As noted on the Cowspiracy website, “Animal agriculture is the leading cause of deforestation, water consumption and pollution, is responsible for more greenhouse gases than the transportation industry, and is a primary driver of rainforest destruction, species extinction, habitat loss, topsoil erosion, ocean ‘dead zones,’ and virtually every other environmental ill.” Wow. In the documentary, Anderson approached several leading conservation organizations and was amazed by their intentional refusal to discuss the environmental impacts of animal agriculture. A notable exception among the conservation organizations that were interviewed in Cowspiracy: Sea Shepherd! As I watched the film, I was tremendously impressed that Sea Shepherd is willing to bravely speak out — in Cowspiracy as well as other platforms — about the devastating effects of animal agriculture. The film left me eager to learn more about this courageous conservation organization.

Dinner with Captain Watson at Great Sage

On the appointed evening, Great Sage provided a welcoming venue for the dinner with Captain Watson. The decor was tasteful and elegant: wooden tabletops with black cloth napkins; 3-blade wooden ceiling fans and simple overhead lighting; and warm, earth-tone walls with mirrors, carved-wood panels, and various depictions of trees.

Every day that Great Sage is open, it proves to eager diners that plant-based cuisine can be interesting and flavorful. As indicated on the restaurant’s website, “Great Sage is anything but common — featuring a bold menu inspired by exotic flavors from around the world, using organic ingredients to nourish the body, and providing a warm, romantic atmosphere perfect for any occasion. Great Sage seeks to provide the highest quality gourmet foods created from only plant-based sources.”

The prix fixe menu for the dinner with Captain Watson included four amazing courses: 1) traditional split pea soup with crispy shallots drizzled in basil-mint ‘cream,’ served with a side salad composed of arugula, torched grape tomatoes & grilled asparagus, shaved ‘parmesan’ & rosemary garlic croutons tossed in lemon-chive vinaigrette; 2) crispy potatoes, broccoli and beer-battered smoked ‘Gouda’ placed on a bed of beer ‘cheddar cheese,’ drizzled with mushroom gravy, topped with shaved scallion & chives; 3) toasted dumpling stuffed with portabello steak, walnuts, onions & cranberries on top of baked beans, beets & sunchokes, with sauteed garlic kale in a whisky ‘cream’ sauce, topped with maple-Sriracha pine nuts & Canadian ‘bacon’ crumbles; and 4) triangles with coconut, hazelnut, & cocoa crust and a cappucino filling and salted white and dark chocolate ganache, placed on top of maple custard, garnished with toffee and a strawberry. Each course was delicious, and the serving sizes were very generous.

A Colorful Character

Captain Paul Watson looks convincingly like a seafarer. He’s got a full, white beard and a generous head of wavy, white hair. He wears black to match the background of Sea Shepherd’s pirate-style logo. He’s apparently not an official ship captain, although the title clearly fits. He is unapologetic about Sea Shepherd’s often-confrontational style with whaling vessels and factory fishing ships, because that strategy has been working — and no humans get hurt.

Captain Watson has spent his whole life saving animals, having started at the age of 11 when the beavers in the local pond were being trapped. He swam along the lines, freed the beavers, and destroyed the traps. Scoreboard: Captain Watson and beavers – 1; beaver trappers – 0!

The Status of the Seas

During the dinner at Great Sage, Captain Watson described Sea Shepherd’s vessels and wide range of activities. He described Sea Shepherd as “more of a movement than an organization,” and he told us about each of the vessels that comprise what he affectionately called “Neptune’s Navy.” The five ships are the Farley Mowat, the John Paul DeJoria, the Sharpie, the Martin Sheen and the Brigitte Bardot.

After describing the ships and their corresponding campaigns, he told us about the status of the seas, and the information he presented was alarming:

40% of the fish sold in stores has been illegally caught.
Scientists estimate that by 2048 there will be no fishing industry, because there will be no fish (due to overfishing, bycatch, dead zones, and other ways that fish are depleted).
40% of the fish that is caught is fed to cows and chickens — that’s more fish than the wild albatross eat
Plastic trash in the oceans has become a big problem, and microplastics can now be found in the flesh of fish.

How to Help

Captain Watson told us that going vegan (which Sea Shepherd did in the year 2000) is one of the best ways to help the seas and the animals that inhabit them (plus land animals and ecosystems, too). A recent story by CNN (entitled Go Vegan, Save the Planet) stated that “adopting a plant-based diet is … one of the most powerful choices an individual can make in mitigating environmental degradation and depletion of Earth’s natural resources.” And clearly, as I can attest after eating the meal at Great Sage, a vegan lifestyle does not have to be boring!

Captain Watson also encouraged us to support local, grassroots organizations, because they are often able to make a real difference. And he said that each of us could make a difference by getting personally involved.

Here are the four ingredients in his recipe for individual success: skills, ability, imagination, and courage.

And here is the ingredient in his recipe for success of a conservation organization: “Recruit an army of volunteers; you can’t buy that kind of passion.”

How else can you help? Donate , shop, and volunteer!

The Bottom Line

Captain Watson reminded us that we are in the midst of the 6th major extinction event on planet Earth. The planet, as he noted, has always recovered and has flourished after each of the previous events – although it took 18 to 20 million years. So the earth will go on. And conservation, therefore, is about saving humanity from humanity. Well said, Captain Watson.

Helping the Havasu Pack Horses

Animal AdvocacyApril 25, 2018March 27, 2019 Leigh Scott

Helping the Havasu Pack Horses

April 25, 2018

Next week, my husband and I were supposed to be going on a dream vacation to the spectacularly beautiful Havasu Falls, located on one of the tributaries of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. Several years ago, we’d rafted the lower portion of the Grand Canyon, and during that trip we’d been able to take a side excursion, hiking a short way up the incomparable Havasu Canyon — but didn’t have enough time to reach the falls. One of the photos that I took on that hike is pasted in here.

Ever since then, we’d wanted to come back and visit the famous falls. So last autumn my husband had secretly booked a guided trip for us to Havasu Falls, and the excursion was intended to be a nice surprise for me. I didn’t find out where we were going until only a couple of weeks ago, and ever since then I had become increasing excited about the adventure to come.

Excursions to the falls normally begin at Hualapai Hilltop, and hikers traverse downhill steeply through a series of switchbacks to the canyon floor below — with an elevation loss of about 2,400 ft. It can be a tough backpacking route, so my husband had booked an excursion that would involve hiking 10 miles down to the falls with only a daypack, leaving the rest of the gear and food to be carried by the Havasu pack horses. And that was the happy dream. But then a few days ago, we saw a shocking Facebook post that began to turn our dream vacation into a potential nightmare. What the post revealed is that the natural beauty of the blue-green waters is marred by the cruel treatment that some of the Havasu pack horses experience.

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