Krabloonik, town settle dispute, and sled dog business will wind down over next year

Want to adopt a sled dog into a happy home — right away?

Sled dogs from a Snowmass restaurant and kennel will be up for adoption now that the village has settled a long legal dispute with the business.

The Snowmass Village Town Council voted unanimously Monday night into approve a settlement between the village and its controversial tenant Krabloonik, the restaurant and dog sled combo. The agreement requires Krabloonik to begin reducing the number of its 180 dogs it owns by finding adoptive homes or shelters for them.

Snowmass Village will pay for a veterinarian to oversee the well-being of the dogs. The vet will also decide whether it’s appropriate to euthanize a sick or injured dog.

Town Manager Clinton Kinney realizes it will be a challenge to house all 180 dogs, but said the town and Krabloonik welcome help from many sources.

Krabloonik must be off the premises by June 1, 2024. Krabloonik must submit a “wind down plan” to the town within 30 days.

The agreement ends all lawsuits between Krabloonik and the town of Snowmass Village. The village had planned to go to court to determine its right to evict Krabloonik, but the settlement ends the eviction process.

Krabloonik owners Dan Phillips and his wife did not speak at the meeting.

Krabloonik has been a Snowmass Village fixture since 1976, when the late Dan MacEachen opened the operation after receiving county approval in 1974, drawing patrons for its restaurant’s game menu and the sled-dog rides pulled by Alaskan huskies under a musher’s guidance.

The operation, however, has been at the center of criticism from animal activists, state investigations and complaints from whistle-blowing employees over its treatment of the sled dogs for more than two decades. The Phillips bought the operation from MacEachen in December 2014, and an outside best-practices review committee was created in 2015, crafting policies that Krabloonik was to follow in order to stay in compliance with its lease.

Krabloonik’s declaratory judgment complaint filed Dec. 2, 2022, preceded an eviction action the town started 10 days later in court.

The town’s attempt to evict Krabloonik through the legal system began 10 days later when it filed a “forcible entry and detainer” action in Pitkin County District Court. The December filing followed months of talks between the town and Krabloonik, chiefly over whether the kennel’s care of the sled-dogs was in default of the best practices plan referred to in the lease agreement.

The town’s eviction suit against Krabloonik was consolidated with Krabloonik’s complaint seeking a declaratory judgment that it has not been in default of its lease. The competing cases were filed in December — Kraloonik’s action on the second of the month, the town’s 10 days later — and both sides agreed to merge them for the sake of judicial efficiency.