Table of Contents* Fan Mail * Breaking Away: The Liberation of Ove Nygaard * What is the ISDI and the ISD? * A Holiday Miracle * Of Sheep and Sled Dogs * News Briefs * Qamutiit and How They're Loaded * The Truth Behind the Madrid Protocol * Media Review: Globe Trekker - Iceland and Greenland * Product Review: Ryobi TrimmerPlus® * Tip for the Trail: Bitches in Season * IMHO: Super Cars and Inuit Dogs Navigating This
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![]() Young Vikings, "Pinky and Perky" at two months old J. Noble photo, Stonington 1966/67 Behind the Madrid Protocol:
reported by Mark Hamilton This past October, Sue and I flew to the United Kingdom to visit friends, tour Scotland (including a meeting with polar explorer Sir Wally Herbert and his wife, Lady Marie, at their home) and to attend the Marguerite Bay reunion of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey/British Antarctic Survey veterans. The event, held in Lockerbie gave us our second opportunity (the first being the reunion held in Stonington, Connecticut in October, 2001) to get to know this remarkable group of men and to hear some of their stories. The affair was much too brief, and there were so many people carrying on so many conversations that it was difficult to absorb much of any details of those exhilarating and dangerous days of exploration by dog team. Recurring themes, however, were the love and respect for the dogs, the bitterness of the dogs' removal from the continent and the sense of profound loss that virtually no genetic material from this unique population was saved. They are ALL GONE! One of the most enlightening discussions at the reunion
was the revelation
to us of the real story why all dogs were banished from
Antarctica. It
seems that France and Argentina, for their own reasons,
did not want the
treaty but were unwilling to be seen as the sources of its
failure. Instead,
having made the assumption that the dogs were such an
integral part of
British effort and tradition in Antarctica as to be
something they would
refuse to relinquish, the French and the Argentines had
the provision about
removal of non-indigenous species added to the treaty.
Their assumption
was that while other countries with dogs (such as
Australia and New Zealand)
would be willing to give up their dogs, the provision
would serve as a
"poison pill" for the BAS and result in the treaty failing
because Britain
would refuse to sign. Ultimately, however, word came down
"from on high"
that a major treaty would not be lost over a bunch of
dogs, and BAS was
ordered to get rid of them.
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