"Why is it so difficult?": BC Ferries questioned over priority loading

Kevan Garecki/Facebook

An incident involving a sick mare and her newborn foal has led to frustrations and questions surrounding BC Ferries policies for emergency animal transports from a Langley man.

Kevan Garecki operates a transportation company that specializes in moving large animals back and forth between the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, and the Sunshine Coast. To do so, he has to take his trailer and truck across on the ferry, but he says it’s been a nightmare to do, especially as reservations are all booked up, and animals are not treated under the same “Medical Assured Loading” program as humans with medical needs are.

While it isn’t a major concern some days, Garecki often is in a serious rush, like on his latest trip, the experience of which he shared on Facebook.

“The mare had just foaled when [the vet] called me that morning. The foal was, I believe, about 10 or 12 hours old, and she had apparently retained a portion of the placenta after giving birth. That is a high risk in itself, and she developed a severe infection, that needed to get dealt with, like ASAP, so we were literally counting hours to get her into the vet clinic. So hence the emergency nature,” he told Daily Hive.

Kevan Garecki/Facebook

Garecki said he and the vet called BC Ferries ahead of time to warn them of the emergency and the necessary speed, but he claims staff hung up on them and argued with them despite the fact that “not one, but two lives were quite literally hanging by a thread.”

Garecki said he arrived at Horseshoe Bay to see a two-sailing wait and a very stressful situation because terminal staff weren’t initially willing to let him board. Thankfully, someone with BC Ferries eventually came through, and he was able to cross. But the whole incident adds to his series of concerns about the current process.

Garecki wants BC Ferries to reclassify transporting animals as a priority instead of what they are now, which is similar to a commercial semi-truck carrying goods and products. However, BC Ferries does allow for emergency boarding on a case-by-case basis, but Garecki said in his experience, it’s been unreliable and frustrating.

Kevan Garecki/Facebook

“A long time ago, we used to get priority loading with livestock and particularly with medical emergencies. We literally rolled down the hill into the booth, and if the ferry was still there, we got on. It didn’t matter what the parking lot looked like. That has changed drastically. Now we’re just lumber,” he said, adding that sometimes they are in a four-sailing wait with animals at the terminal.

When asked why his transport is essential, Garecki explained that it’s often the only option.

“All the vet clinics [in] the Lower Mainland, they will default to calling us in any sort of emergency,” he said.

May be an image of snowplow, ski slope and text that says 'INJURED HORSE ON BOARD STOP OR CHANGE LANES UNEXPECTEDLY EQUINE EMERGENCY RESPONSE EQUINEEMERGEY'

Kevan Garecki/Facebook

Bringing a vet to the Sunshine Coast would take them out of their clinic and leave other patients without a veterinarian for too long. They also often need to access their own equipment and labs for the treatments, which are primarily back on the Mainland.

He added, “Not a lot of people over on the Sunshine Coast have their own trailer. So access to transport can be difficult,” Garecki said. “We’ve been doing this for a very, very long time, and we also have the expertise and the equipment to handle numerous emergencies, like horses, non-ambulatory, that sort of thing.”

He also noted that large aircraft for livestock transport isn’t possible in short distances like that because there aren’t any aircraft equipped locally for large animal transport. While there have been rare cases when helicopters have been used, it’s a “one in a million” situation.

A rare case

According to Horizon Equine Veterinary Clinic Ltd. it is unable to provide specifics on this incident due to privacy reasons, but overall it is “extremely rare” for a priority emergency boarding request to BC Ferries in situations for horses.

“Regardless of transport carrier, our preference is always to collaborate to prepare what is best and makes the most sense for each specific case,” General Manager Tracy Holotuk said.

Adding, “We have always been impressed in our experience with the BC Ferries when we work together for the health and safety of the horses in our care.”

BC Ferries has issued an apology for any distress that was caused, but they were unable to find the exact call to the customer service team to investigate further into what exactly happened.

BC Ferries said that it understands many people who have pets or livestock have specific circumstances that would require an earlier sailing.

“BC Ferries is committed to the safety and wellbeing of all animals travelling with us. When an animal requires urgent medical care, our terminal staff make every effort to ensure they can travel on the next available sailing,” BC Ferries spokesperson Ritinder Matthew said Friday.

Adding that the best way to do that is to call ahead and speak with customer service, something that Garecki states he and the vet did.

BC Ferries says, however, it is challenging to address each unique situation, especially on high-volume routes such as the Horseshoe Bay to the Sunshine Coast sailings.

“If advance notice is not possible, our staff will work to get the customer on the next available sailing, with a maximum one sailing wait, even during busy times,” Matthew said.

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For Garecki, he says the biggest takeaway here is that the mare and the foal survived.

“I’m a big one for education versus retaliation. Yes, it was frustrating, it was maddening, but I think, I think the solution is in explaining our position to them. And I would like to see some a solid protocol written down either into an SOP or whatever it would take that we could call on in instances like that,” he said.

“I would love the opportunity to sit down with someone who is in a position to either make or revise current policies and just educate them and just let them know what kind of challenges that we face.”

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