Leah Fetterley hangs out with a few of the 70 dogs that she keeps with husband Brad at North Ridge Ranch in Huntsville. The mushers maintain their animals have a good life and keeping them tethered outdoors, with a doghouse, is not the awful scenario that some animal activists describe. PHOTO SUPPLIED - Huntsville, Ontario, Canada 
Dogsledders Defend Tethering
Dogsledders are bristling at recent accusations that they treat their animals poorly.
“People need to be educated,” says Leah Fetterley, of North Ridge Ranch in Huntsville. “If they just see dogs on chains they think back to the old junkyard dog on a chain, being neglected, and that’s not the reality.”
North Ridge, operated by Leah and her husband Brad, hosts 70 Alaskan huskies, which they harness up to take guests on one-hour and half-day tours of the wintry Muskoka woods.
The business was singled out last week by Sandra Garofolo, a Sudbury native who is critical of dog tethering and wants to see the OSPCA Act updated to outlaw the practice.
The Huntsville mushing business isn’t the only one that worries the animal lover — nor would she say it’s the worst offender — but it’s the first one she encountered after moving to Muskoka a few years ago, and it spurred her to look more closely at animal welfare laws and lobby for reform.
In a petition she is submitting to the provincial legislature, Garofolo argues 24/7 tethering of dogs is inhumane and calls on the government to “ban outdoor dog chaining in Ontario.” She also asks Queen’s Park to implement “stricter regulations of the sled dog industry.”
Fetterley, who was introduced to dogsledding while studying at Lakehead University, says some people put dogs in outdoor pens, or keep them indoors, but she and her partner feel the best option for their sizeable pack is to provide each with a doghouse and keep them on a tether.
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