Coro­na cri­sis: small com­pa­nies with dogs under pres­su­re

The Coro­na virus has not yet come to Spits­ber­gen (as far as known at the time of wri­ting). The strict qua­ran­ti­ne rules are still in force, they have actual­ly been exten­ded on Fri­day (17 April) and will now last at least until 01 May, as the Sys­sel­man­nen infor­med.

As for eco­no­mies all over the world, Lon­gye­ar­by­en is suf­fe­ring sever­ely from the eco­no­mic­al con­se­quen­ces. Many com­pa­nies and peo­p­le depend on inco­mes deri­ved within tou­rism. Unem­ploy­ment has risen shar­ply to levels pre­vious­ly unknown at 78 degrees north.

Ever­y­bo­dy has regu­lar expen­ses and is under pres­su­re to cover them, but some have even hig­her regu­lar cos­ts and this includes com­pa­nies with polar dogs. Dogs need food and care even when the­re are now tou­rists. Cur­rent eco­no­mic­al aid by the Nor­we­gi­an govern­ment is among­st others aiming at hel­ping com­pa­nies with their expen­ses until May. But the cur­rent win­ter sea­son is now coming to an end, and eco­no­mic­al­ly, the 2020 sea­son just never hap­pen­ed, and the next win­ter sea­son will not come any ear­lier than ear­ly 2021 – if it comes, that is. Com­pa­nies have said that they will be hap­py if 2021 brings 60 % of a nor­mal annu­al inco­me.

Out on tour with dogs near Lon­gye­ar­by­en. Makes serious­ly hap­py!
And so does food for the dogs after the tour.

Some of the smal­ler com­pa­nies have alre­a­dy appea­led for help: Sval­bard Hus­ky have an appeal on their web­site, and Sval­bard Vill­marks­enter have made an appeal in a local social media group, cal­ling for “dona­ti­ons ear-mark­ed dog-food”. Both are local fami­ly com­pa­nies.

If you want to be a spon­sor or god­pa­rent to a polar dog in Lon­gye­ar­by­en, then you are wel­co­me to get in touch direct­ly with eit­her Sval­bards Hus­ky through their web­sei­te (click here), via email (post@svalbardhusky.no) or give them a call: +47 784 03 078.

Or get in touch with Sval­bard Vill­marks­enter through the web­sei­te (click here), via email (info@svalbardvillmarkssenter.no) or on the pho­ne: +47 79 02 17 00.

Mar­tin Munck of Green Dog Sval­bard, a lar­ger com­pa­ny with 275 dogs, cal­cu­la­tes 100,000 kro­ner per month just for dog food (curr­ent­ly near 8900 Euro). In a con­ver­sa­ti­on with Sval­bard­pos­ten, he stron­gly rejects rumours that kil­ling dogs could be an opti­on.

Do you agree that spitsbergen-svalbard.com is a gre­at re­source for any arc­tic enthu­si­ast?

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