Puppy farming, blood and suspicions of crime – Consequential canine crisis brewing in Lapland, Northern Finland
Horrific news hails from Lapland. As tourism numbers soar the demand for sled dog business is exploding.
This growth is happening in part at the expense of the wellbeing of the dogs. Many of the businesses that used to dog sledding at a smaller scale have grabbed at the growing demand.
From time to time the media gets interested in these cases. For example, Lapin kansa recently reported a case where a husky safari entrepreneur had broken numerous regulations regarding dogs’ welfare.
Similar news pieces have often been perceived as isolated cases and have been bemoaned on dog sledding web forums and in other social media. The scale has, however, grown so much that it can be said to be a major canine crisis.
A husky safari can look like this when there are many dogs and skilled workforce isn’t hired. This video is taken in Northern Finland by a person, who used to work in this business.
No one knows the real amount of dogs
The rapid rise of tourism can be seen in the husky business in many ways. For instance, a company with a few or few dozen sled dogs may have expanded suddenly to many hundreds of dogs.
Dirty tricks might be used when there’s a need to provide dogs for tourists at a rapid rate: at worst dogs are being brought in from overseas by the van load regardless of import requirements and vaccinations or they are bred at a rapid pace. Due to a lack of skilled workforce accidental litters and dog fights are common.
– These are certainly not isolated incidents. It’s true that some entrepreneurs are exemplary but there are a huge amount of horror stories. Says Nina Lager, head of the municipal animal shelter in Inari.
Nowadays Lager who has also worked in sled dog business for years speaks her mind gladly about the numerous problems of the industry.
– In parts of Lapland the situation is really bad. This is not a question of hundreds of suffering dogs but there are probably thousands of these dogs. The business has grown so rapidly that supervision can’t keep up. Distances up here in the north are so big and these shady places can easily stay hidden There is no one in Inari, for instance, who can say how many sled dogs there are currently.
Accidental litters and puppy farming are common in some husky kennels. The mother and pups in the footage were held in cages for a prolonged time. The mother and pups weren’t dewormed or vaccinated. Some of the puppies died later on due to lack of care.
The video is taken by an ex-employee of the company.
Pups are rarely sold to outsider dog enthusiasts. When there’s not enough time or skill to take care of the dogs they become waste of the industry. Workers found the depicted dead puppy among the rubbish.
According to information acquired by SEY some kennels employ a variety of methods for disposal of dogs. Dead dogs are hidden wherever: at some kennels among the rubbish, in others into the wilderness.
Dogs are left unregistered
At its most blatant the husky safari business is connected with criminal business. As keeping a huge amount of dogs fed is not cheap, some entrepreneurs have resorted to a variety of ways in acquiring food for the animals. Finnish customs has, for example, reported to have investigated the importing of illegal whale meat from Norway. Importing whale meat is illegal in Finland. According to Lapin kansa also regulations in both working conditions and the dogs’ wellbeing can be violated.
Dogs are also imported with incomplete documentation. According to information acquired by SEY Animal Welfare Finland for instance a husky safari entrepreneur has repeatedly brought dogs from France to northern Finland in vans. The dogs have been brought from French kennels without import documents. They haven’t been vaccinated, dewormed or taken to the vet when needed. Dozens of dogs have been brought in at a time.
Some of the sled dog entrepreneurs have publicly said that the dogs aren’t registered at the Food authority’s dog registry. The reasons vary: registration is claimed to be too difficult, or it is seen as an unnecessary and annoying bureaucracy. Since the dogs are unregistered their real numbers and e.g. the amount of pups is never accounted for. It has been mandatory to register dogs to this registry in Finland since 2023.
According to information acquired by SEY for instance a husky safari entrepreneur who has operated for years has repeatedly brought dogs from France without the required import documentarian, vaccinations or deworming.
The dogs are brought in a van, and the travel time is several days. The transport conditions are insufficient, and the dogs aren’t allowed out to walk during the trip. Some of the dogs on the video have already died after arriving in Finland.
The video is taken by an ex-employee of the company.
Authorities are too slow to get on the case
SEY has seen extensive evidence of offences sent by ex-employees of a husky safari entrepreneur. According to the employees it’s typical that the dogs don’t receive veterinary treatment when needed and that only the most severe cases or the most valuable dogs receive treatment.
According to the local law Regional State Administrative Agencies need to be notified prior to commencing professional sled dog operations. Many of the operators do this but because of the common practice of using subcontractors some of the dogs used by these companies never end up registered by officials.
Many entrepreneurs move to another locale or even overseas if they get into trouble with the officials in one region. SEY has knowledge of many cases where the operator has been convicted of animal welfare offences but, who have consequently moved their operations to Sweden or Norway or vice versa. Often, they flee the region before being convicted.
– It’s a really big problem that the Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian animal welfare authorities don’t systematically cooperate on these sled dog cases. At the very moment I know of cases where the animal welfare authorities have tried to crack down on the situation but the person in question has moved to another country and sold the dogs to another company or a relative. In practice the dogs are worked by the same person and their conditions are just as dismal as before says Nina Lager.
When the employees lack the competence in canine care and the employer refuses to to take the dogs to the vet when it’s vital the result can look like this for example.
Video is taken by ex-employee.
According to SEY some of the husky safari operators are using dogs who have been trained very little or not at all for the job. The footage is from the ex-employee of a sled dog operator. The paws of the dogs in the footage haven’t been treated properly.
The injuries were sustained when the dog was made to run in a harness for the first time and it got dragged in fear along with the other dogs.
Animal welfare authorities in Northern Finland are aware of the problem points of the industry. Eläinten ystävä -magazine asked five supervisory veterinarians working in north Finland about this, four of which had time to answer. One of them remains anonymous for this article. The answers illustrate that some of the areas have a significantly greater amount of resources for supervision than others.
The supervisory veterinarian of Kuusamo Minna Haataja-Koskinen says that all the regions husky farms are in the monitoring plan of the supervisory veterinarian and are subject to regular animal welfare monitoring and check-ups.
– The most common issues with husky safaris in our region have been related to the small cage sizes relative to the size of dogs, too short chains for those dogs that are kept chained, pups and the structures and or lack of heating of suckling mothers and thin haired dogs during winter, sparse bedding in the kennels and tooth issues with the dogs.
Haataja-Koskinen believes that most of the observed deficiencies are born from ignorance.
– Delightfully Often the deficiencies are fixed during the check-ups or soon afterwards. Generally speaking, the husky safari operators in our region care very much for their dogs and want to do things the right way she says.
When there are hundreds of dogs in the kennel it’s obvious that some of the dogs might be ill. According to information received by SEY there isn’t necessarily enough time to do check-ups on all of the dogs during the supervisory visits. Some of the dogs might also have been taken away for the duration of the inspections.
The footage is taken by a worker at the kennel. According to the person who took the video the dog in the video was not taken to the vet as the husky safari entrepreneur thought it was too expensive.
The supervisory veterinarian of Rovaniemi and nearby municipalities Pälvi Palojärvi openly admits that there isn’t enough time to make inspection visits as often as would be necessary.
– We strive to visit husky safari farms at least every other year. Some farms are visited more often on a case-by-case basis. In its own monitoring plan, the Regional State Administrative Agency of Lapland has defined that sled dog farms need to be visited yearly. Our resources don’t allow us to do that for all of the farms. The law doesn’t define a monitoring frequency.
According to Palojärvi the defining issues at the farms have been the amount and availability of skilled workforce at some farms.
– Essentially this relates to adequate orientation and at the bigger farms the organisation of operations. The workers are on an individual level the foundation of the welfare of the animals. Of course there are issues that I wouldn’t call common, but are observed from time to time e.g. deficiencies in bedding in the doghouses during summertime, insufficient exercise outside of season. And deficiencies in checking the condition of the dogs’ teeth. Quite a few farms have needed to be pushed to register their dogs at the food authority’s dog registry. Though the registry itself isn’t a welfare issue for the dogs says Palojärvi.
Palojärvi acknowledges that some of the operators might be entirely outside of supervision.
– The farms are obliged to register themselves. In practice I believe that most operators come to our attention through the grapevine at the latest. Some of the smaller operators, who work as subcontractors for larger farms might however be left outside of supervisions she says.
Mikaela Sauvala, supervisory veterinarian of the Kemijärvi municipality also says that there’s an increased need for resources for animal protection control over the past few years.
– Our municipality suffers from a lack of resources slightly but there will be an increase still this year. For instance, previously some individual farms haven’t registered themselves and they’ve been exposed via animal welfare reports she says.
In other municipalities there aren’t always enough resources. A supervisory veterinarian working in northern Finland interviewed anonymously says that in their operational area there aren’t enough resources for animal protection controls.
– I work alone in a large area and in addition to supervisory veterinary duties I have other duties also. I also lack someone I can share the mental load and discuss the cases.
This particular supervisory veterinarian describes a long list of issues they face at the husky safari farms
– There’s a lot of variation. Listed in no particular order issues range from too short chains, undersized dog houses, outdoor enclosures with broken or otherwise unsafe structures, too short haired (hound type) dogs kept constantly outdoors, too thin dogs that constantly fight each other and pups in the winter. In addition, the dogs might not have a running yard, or they are generally passive outside the tourist season, sick dogs are left without care, workers have poor working conditions (terms, wages, accommodation), workers have no prior experience with dogs, dogs are made to run too much or otherwise mistreated. The latter of these are often hard to prove according to the interviewee.
The life of a safari dog might look like this outside of the season. Many of the dog safari companies use subcontractors, who in turn are a sort of subcontractor for a larger company. This enables the larger company to keep its dogs in legally appropriate conditions but some or all of the subcontractors’ dogs might be left entirely outside any supervision.
According to information obtained by SEY it’s typical practice that these subcontractors transport or even store their dogs in trailers far away from dwellings. According to SEY the dogs on the video are no staying at the location on the footage.
Where’s the travel industry’s responsibility?
Nina Lager points out that some inspections might not be carried out due to the situations being threatening and getting assistance might be difficult due to the limited police resources.
She hopes that the travel industry would wake up to these problems.
– Hotels and travel companies should do their own research on whom they buy their husky safaris from. That would have a major impact on the dogs’ life. Currently many reputable travel companies buy husky safaris from operators, who subcontract from the same entrepreneurs that have been in the news for animal cruelty says Lager.
Lager points out that very few tourists know to sufficiently research the backgrounds of the companies they’re buying their husky safaris from.
– There’s no point in a public lynching of a few badly operating kennels and then shifting the onus onto the tourist who buys the safaris. The travel industry should investigate the backgrounds of the operators themselves, and act ethically says Lager.
Today the tourist dreaming of a husky safari has no other practical option in verifying the ethical operation of a safari company than to choose an operator with a Green activities certificate.
In order to obtain the independent Green activities certificate the company must pass certain criteria and regular auditing visits. The certificate also tries to take into account the welfare of reindeer and dogs, although there’s room for improvement in the criteria of the certificate. Only a fraction of the companies offering husky safaris have the Green activities certificate.
Several old and decrepit dogs were found at a sled dog farm in Inari at the beginning of this year. According to information received by SEY the dog in the footage is paralysed because the route the dogs are driven is dangerous and dogs are often injured due to the insufficient skills of the workers.
The footage is taken by a person who worked at the farm.
Neglecting the welfare of the dogs is already damaging Finland’s reputation
Pihla Markkola, veterinarian and head of expertise at SEY Animal Welfare Finland points out that operators who neglect animal welfare are damaging the whole sled dog industry in addition to tourism in Lapland and to Finnish reputation globally.
– There are many responsible operators, who take animal welfare seriously. However, it’s hard for the traveller to find these companies as there are so many providers available.
Markkola points out that tourists come to Finland for quality and wellbeing.
– The term One Welfare is already known around the world. This term underlines how human and animal welfare is tied together. Finland should present itself as a country where the wellbeing of dogs is also taken care of.
More resources to supervision and more functional cooperation between authorities?
All of the locations depicted in the photos and videos in this article have been reported to the supervising authorities. Looking at the images and videos it’s easy to see that more resources need to be diverted towards regulatory oversight. This would enable functional and effective supervision.
– Additionally, the flow of information between authorities across borders and between various municipalities needs to be developed. Currently some of the supervisory veterinarians seem to be swamped with their workload and they might not be able to supervise the industry as efficiently as would be necessary says Markkola.
Sweden could offer an example as professional husky safari operations there require a licence.
According to Markkola the situation could be improved by increasing cooperation between travel industry, municipalities and responsible sled dog operators.
– Standards should be developed for the industry. Many other industries are already engaging in voluntary programs, where animal wellbeing is regularly monitored and where the aim is above the legal minimum.
The proficiency of the operators should also be established before commencing business.
– It’s important that people working in the sled dog industry have an understanding of the wellbeing of animals and that they know where to report any issues as they arise says Markkola. The sled dog industry doesn’t work in a vacuum she says, but it is linked with the travel industry in general.
– The wellbeing of these dogs is all of our concern. Sled dogs are still dogs and their job can be hard at times. They deserve at least the same level of care as pet dogs concludes Markkola.
The Regional State Administrative Agency of Lapland is also aware that a number of professional sled dog operators are not supervised.
The municipal veterinarian of the Regional State Administrative Agency of Lapland Ulla Rikula says the agency is aware that some of the sled dog operators haven’t registered their professional or large-scale operations at the agency’s registry of animal holding facilities and some haven’t registered their dogs at the Finnish Food Authority.
– The supervisory veterinarians usually have a solid local knowledge and usually find out new operators one way or another. The operators are advised or ordered to register the holding facilities and animal husbandry and to microchip their dogs and register them at the Food Authority’s dog registry says Rikula.
– We’re aware of subcontractors in the industry. Citizens are invited to report their observations of new sled dog farms to their municipalities’ supervisory veterinarians or Regional State Administrative Agencies (1.1.2026 to the Finnish Food Authority as the supervisory veterinarians move over as state veterinarians), so that the inspectors can check if the registrations have been made to the EPR and dog registry and that the operators can be brought under supervision.
Rikula points out that supervision can advance the dogs welfare to a certain point.
– What’s most important is the industry’s own attitude towards animal welfare and how the everyday operations ensure and promote the welfare of the dogs in all conditions year round she says
Rikula points out that the industry has grown fast and that both the number of operators and the size of the farms has grown.
– Not all operators have for instance identified the minimum legal requirements. It’s advisable to consult the supervisory veterinarians when developing a dog farm. Supervisory veterinarians and municipal veterinarians receive many reports of dog welfare neglect or suspicions of neglect.
