Seppala Kennels 'SledDogBlog'

Nine months on

Nine months have elapsed since the Seppala Sleddog Project website was reduced to a memorial marker page, its content removed from public html access. The past two years have seen no Seppala litters born at Seppala Kennels. Some sixty Seppalas remain here with us in Manitoba. Around fifty-odd Project Seppalas remain in other locations, owned by various private individuals. I believe just six of that number were born within the past two years.

To the best of my knowledge and belief, there is no active organisation now looking after the interests of Project Seppalas, and no plan for Seppala preservation in the future. I do know that at least three interested parties have been exchanging views informally; to what effect, I do not know.

Although the closing of the SSSD Project in June of last year was somewhat less definitive than the retirement of Donnie McFaul and the sale of his dogs in 1963, it is nonetheless analogous. Once again, there is a large question mark hanging over the future of Seppalas. Once again, the biological clock is inexorably ticking. By the year 2020, give or take a year or two, it will be "game over" for Seppalas if the present status quo prevails.

It's now up to those folks who keep telling me and others how much they admire Seppalas, either to create a future for them, or not to do so. It might be within my power, theoretically, to delay the inevitable; I have the broodstock to carry on the breeding programme, but I have neither the funds, the facilities, nor the energy to do so. My wife and I have all we can do to care for the dogs we have now; breeding litters and caring for pups is out of the question at the moment. I am offering some twenty Seppalas of breeding age for sale this spring, if anyone is interested in carrying on the work of breeding to ensure Seppala survival.

Once again, the survival of Leonhard Seppala's sleddogs is in the hands of fate.

Posted by jjeffrey at March 26, 2011 02:21 PM