The Barrel
Dear Frankie,
My parents usually rent a beach house during my winter break from doggy daycare. My dad thought the family was getting into a rut, so he rented a ski house this year. I wasn’t hot on the idea, but I was outvoted by my siblings, who are snowboarders.
As a consolation, my dad arranged for me to hang out with the St. Bernard Rescue Corps when the family was skiing. When I met with the St Bernards, I expected to hear of their adventures and dare-devil experiences on the slopes. There were a few stories like that, but mostly, they talked about their lousy work conditions and the barrel they were required to wear around their neck.
The corps leader, Scout, said the barrel was a joke; he had never used it once in his ten years of service. He said it was, in the truest sense of the word, a pain in the neck and the cause of chronic neck pain for him and several of the dogs.
He had spoken numerous times with the captain of the ski patrol about ditching the barrel but was told the photo shoots of the skiers with the dogs wearing a barrel were a good income stream for the ski resort owners.
Using these canine medical professionals who provide vital life-saving services as money-making props is downright disrespectful. These owners should be ashamed of themselves.
Wilson
Dear Wilson,
I fantasized about hospital administrators telling doctors that part of the job was to raise money for the hospital by being in photo shoots with their patients and families wearing white coats and stethoscopes hanging around their necks. You can imagine how that would have gone over.
Worldwide, animals are abused and used as income producers. A few that come to mind are elephants who carry tourists on back-breaking treks; porpoises and circus animals who are trained, by abusive techniques, to perform unnatural acts; horses who stand for hours on concrete city streets in the heat and cold waiting to pull their hansom cab, dogs who live chained in yards in brutal weather conditions to provide security.
Are these owners oblivious to the pain they cause these animals, or do they not care as long as it lines their pockets?
Best, Frankie
© 2025 Geneva Woodruff
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