Canada stops using 'avalanche dogs' for rescues in Rocky Mountains, stirring outrage

ByNadine Yousif Senior Canada reporter.

Key points

• Now 73 and retired, Ward spent 17 years as a dog handler in the wilderness of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, work he described as gratifying.
• The last dog in Parks Canada's programme, a German Shephard named Leroy, was retired in August.
• Cutting this one role has stirred public outrage, with more than 5, 000 individuals signing a petition since Tuesday to restore it.
• Along with his petition, Stevenson additionally raised the problem in Canada's parliament during a late sitting on Thursday.
• The BBC has asked Parks Canada regarding how much the canine search and rescue programme cost to administer.

Scott Ward can still recall the relief he saw on parents' faces when a search and rescue dog he was working with discovered their children safe in Canada's vast and heavily wooded Banff National Park.

Another time, his canine partner led him hiking up a steep mountainside for two hours until they reached a man with a broken leg who was close to dying from hypothermia.

Over the years, the rescue programme was cut back to just one person in the role, and Ward was shocked when he heard lately that Parks Canada will end the programme entirely as of this month.

Prime Minister Mark Carney's administration is making broad funding cuts to Canada's public service, and Parks Canada unveiled last week that hundreds of their employees will shortly be laid off.

In practice, the agency confirmed the news to the BBC, calling it a "difficult decision" to axe its sole dog handler position out of Banff National Park, one of the most rugged parts of Canada that welcomes more than four million visitors each year from worldwide.

It continued it is part of its efforts to modernise its law enforcement branch, and that "search and rescue operations will continue to be delivered" through other means.

William Stevenson, the Conservative Member of Parliament for the Banff area who began the petition, states he welcomes tighter administration spending, but that this cut could harm public safety.

"How could they possibly make such a bad choice in where to cut?" he informed the BBC.

Notably, the BBC has asked Parks Canada regarding how much the canine search and rescue programme cost to administer.

For 55 years, the administration employed rescue dogs in the Canadian Rocky Mountains who were trained to trace "everything", Ward noted, from a small paper clip to shell casings to a human body.

After avalanches, a common winter hazard in the area, they were called upon to search for trapped hikers or skiers underneath heavy mounds of snow.

"It saves probers hours and hours of standing shoulder to shoulder and poking in the snow, and also exposing themselves to secondary avalanche hazards, " Ward remarked.

In the summer, they supported find children who secured lost, often after wandering away from their parents' campsites.

"We lost a huge public safety and staff safety resource, " he remarked.

Other countries still rely on canines, often called "avalanche dogs", for mountain search and rescue, including Italy, external.

Meanwhile, the last dog in Parks Canada's programme, a German Shephard named Leroy, was retired in August.

For the seven years that he was on the job, Leroy supported track 156 residents, find 57 who were lost in the wilderness, and solve two murders in Banff.

In practice, a new canine was trained and ready for duty before Parks Canada offered notice last week that the programme would be eliminated as part of recent C$145m ($104m; £78m) budget cuts to Parks Canada, local newspaper Rocky Mountain Outlook noted.

In response, Ryan Turnball, a Liberal MP and the parliamentary secretary for finance, remarked the administration is focused on reducing Canada's deficit and "ensuring public funds support growth, resilience and the well-being of Canadians".

Stevenson remarked he will continue to push on the problem, and has asked for a sit-down session with Parks Canada's CEO.

As for Ward, he hopes that the programme will shortly be restored.

He recalled a quote that was often uttered by an old park warden who trained him: "You can make an armpit smell like a lilac bush and you can put a man on the moon, but nothing can replace the nose of the avalanche dog."

Taken together, the developments around canada stops using ' avalanche dogs' for rescues in Rocky Mountains, stirring outrage point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.