Another legacy for Canada's 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games: applying an ethical lens to the post-games' sled dog cull

Abstract

In the spring of 2010, approximately two months after the conclusion of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (Winter Olympics) held in British Columbia, Canada, approximately 100 sled dogs were culled in what the media quickly dubbed a ‘massacre’. A sled dog tour company had overestimated the tourism draw and demand of the Winter Olympics and was consequently ‘over-stocked’ with sled dogs. This paper takes a case study approach to examine the sled dog culling through the ethical lenses of utilitarianism, rights and ecofeminist theory. The application of these three perspectives provides evidence that the behaviour of both the sled dog tour company and the employee who carried out the killings was morally wrong. The implications of this case study are far reaching; the tourism industry can no longer afford to ignore the ethical elements that relate to the industry's use and, frequently, abuse of non-human animals. The recent interest by tourism scholars in the ethical aspects of the industry's use of non-human animals is timely. This under-researched topic of study will benefit from more scholarly interest and study, particularly as it relates to the effectiveness of codes of ethics and conduct, corporate social responsibility programmes, and the practicality and value of incorporating ethical education and training into these various programmes.

Keywords:

• ethics
• utilitarianism theory
• rights theory
• ecofeminist theory
• nature-based tourism
• sled dogs
• Olympics
• British Columbia

Notes

While the terms ‘ethics’ and ‘morals’ are often used interchangeably, they are, in fact, quite different by definition.  For the purposes of this paper, ethics are seen to be guidelines for how an individual should behave within society. Morals, on the other hand, are seen to be that which is good or right in an individual's character or conduct and are influenced by one's culture.  The term ‘ethics’ is more commonly associated with society, whereas the term ‘morals’ is more commonly associated with the individual.

See http://theflume.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=7470; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/17/starving-sled-dogs-seized_n_396469.html; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/08/samuel-walker-gets-90 day_n_820180.html?ref=fb&src=sp#sb=1314454,b=facebook; http://www.adn.com/2010/03/01/1163218/17-year-olds-dog-dies-on-the-trail.html http://www.nnsl.com/frames/newspapers/2005-02/feb2_05dg.html; http://www.whistlerquestion.com/article/20090325/WHISTLER01/303259833/1030/WHISTLER/spca-probes-two-dog-sled-operations; http://news.seppalasleddogs.com/blog/2006_02.html; http://www.helpsleddogs.org/

See Sled Dog Task Force for their 10 recommendations (http://www.gov.bc.ca/agri/down/sleddog_taskforce_report_25mar11.pdf).