8. You described the Zero strain as questionable. How do you think about
the popular Zero strain? Why are the Zero's questionable.
I visited the Zero kennel in 1978 in the accompany of a Swedish breeder
who was interested to buy dogs from Harris Dunlap. At the time, there were
about 125 dogs in the kennel. Only six of them were Siberian Huskies
according to Harris; 4 females and 2 males. The rest of the dogs were
Alaskan Huskies with Siberian Husky like appearance. One of the females
and the two male Siberian Huskies were sold to the Swedish breeder later
that same year. When the dogs arrived in Sweden one of them looked in my
opinion a lot different than the dog I had seen in the USA, though having
the same name. The dog in the USA was mostly brown and looked polar, while
the dog which came to Sweden was black and had a very short coat.
Another thing what struck me during our visit was that Harris was
surprised to hear that I was running Siberian Huskies and asked me
seriously why I "bothered to struggle with those stubborn Siberians". To
me it appeared that the Siberian Husky was more a selling object to him
than a breed he cared for and cherished.
Though Harris had a only a very small population of Siberian Huskies in
his kennel and he sold half of that population to Sweden in 1978, he still
sold lots of “Siberian Huskies” after that.
In the '80s there was a big discussion going on in Norway about the
credibility of the Zero strain as it was said that 3 Norwegian visitors
had been offered mixed bred dogs in 1982, with the reassurance that it was
no problem to get Siberian Husky pedigrees on them. When former co-owner
of the Zero kennel Prof. Dr. Vet. David Kronfeld visited Norway in 1984,
he was asked in a private conversation with me and 5 other mushers present
what he knew about the breeding practices of the kennel. He answered that
he knew very well about, what he said were, "Harris' so called Siberians"
as he (Kronfeld) "had often been with in the game of picking out who were
to be the Siberian Huskies in the litters". He also mentioned an episode
in which Harris sold a mediocre Alaskan Husky bitch for an excessive
price. The reason he could do so was because he sold her as a registered
Siberian Husky to Europe. He gave us insight on the backgrounds of some of
the dogs imported to Norway and Sweden.
Not only in Europe is the Zero line much disputed, but likewise in its
home country USA.
