Dogs, Kayaks, and Seal Liver: A Danish Vet in Greenland

WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE

During the Greenland National Kayaking Championships, Dubside sits down in Sisimiut with Danish veterinarian Asger von Wenck, who has made the leap from teaching veterinary surgery at the University of Copenhagen to living and working full-time in Greenland.

With race starts and kayak songs drifting through the background, Asger shares stories about his work with sled dogs, government vaccination programs, rabies prevention, and the surprising absence of ticks in Greenland. He explains the strict microchipping system for dogs, the realities of veterinary care along the vast Arctic coastline, and what it’s like helping patrol teams in the Northeast Greenland National Park.

The conversation ranges far beyond dogs. They discuss Greenlandic food (including raw seal liver and mattak), winter darkness, homelessness in Nuuk, language learning, and the evolving relationship between Denmark and Greenland in a changing political climate.

A thoughtful, wide-ranging 30-minute conversation about life in Greenland—from kayak clubs to seal soup—with the sounds of competition echoing in the Arctic air.

Transcript

[ANDREW]
Hello everyone and welcome to the Dubcast. Coming to you from both coasts. The Mid-Atlantic region in Virginia and the Pacific Northwest.

[DUBSIDE]
Yes, here we are for the second time on video.

[ANDREW]
So, as you know, we've been solely focused on this upcoming trip to Greenland. And the kayak competition.

[DUBSIDE]
It's still on. We're doing it. We're going there.

[ANDREW]
About half of the people have already bought their tickets. And as soon as we figure out the team roster, we can start introducing you to the members of the team.

[DUBSIDE]
If they want the publicity. Maybe they want to go incognito. We had some sign-ups, some drop-outs from here and there.

We got, what, 6, 7, 8, a good group of 7 or 8 people that are committed. So, yeah, it's going to happen.

[ANDREW]
I'm interested in talking to people individually and finding out how they are preparing for the trip. I've been doing my own preparations, of course. Trying to learn the Greenlandic names of the rolls.

Doing my own rolling, like I said. I've been out of practice for years. I think I got to a point where I figured I just wasn't advancing anymore.

And it wasn't really that important to me. So, I actually had to go back and review a lot of what I'd learned in the past. So, my method was to go back and watch all the rolling videos.

Starting with the classic “Rolling with Maligiaq” here on VHS.

[DUBSIDE]
Is that VHS?

[ANDREW]
Yeah, the original VHS. You can't get this anymore. Actually, if anybody wants to see it, it's on my YouTube channel.

And, of course, the classic “Greenland Rolling with Dubside”.

[DUBSIDE]
Semi-obsolete at this point, but...

[ANDREW]
Also on our YouTube. “Simplifying the Roll” with Helen Wilson.

[DUBSIDE]
So, you had a whole day to sit through all these videos?

[ANDREW]
Well, I haven't gotten through them all yet. I'm working through them. And what else do we have here?

“This is the Roll" with Sherry and Turner. Directed by Justine Curgenven. “This is the Roll” and “This is the Roll 2.”

Got those. And, oh, of course, I forgot to mention the “Greenland Rolling with Dubside and Maligiaq.”

[DUBSIDE]
No, it’s “Greenland Rolling with Maligiaqc and Dubside.”

[ANDREW]
Oh, Maligiaq and Dubside, excuse me.

[DUBSIDE]
Put his name first.

[ANDREW]
Put his name first. Yep. So, I got to work through all those.

And, you know, there's tons of stuff on YouTube, right? I mean, there's all of Christopher Crowhurst's videos. Everybody has their rolling videos.

And it's cool to watch what people are doing. You know, I find video a very useful tool to look at your own rolling technique. You know, you see yourself on video.

You think you're being slow and graceful, but actually it's quite awkward and not very graceful looking.

[DUBSIDE]
So, video itself is— When I started rolling, you look at these videos and you always think, you know, if I could put a video player on the water, but when I'm out paddling, I can't see what the video shows. That was back then. Nowadays, not only can you put it on your cell phone, everybody's got a waterproof case for their cell phone.

So, you can have, you know, see the video right sitting there in your kayak and compare all the time, which is not like it used to be back in the day.

[ANDREW]
Yeah, it was much more difficult back then. You know, my first rolling video was before the GoPro. And I had a camera that actually recorded standard definition video and I had a waterproof case for it.

And I duct taped it to the front of my bow and started rolling, you know, before all these action cams. So, not a big deal these days though. I mean, you put multiple cameras on, cameras underwater and off on the shore.

[DUBSIDE]
I've taught people rolling. I know this one guy, he had a GoPro on his kayak front and back, and he just left it on for the whole lesson. So, he'd go home and relive it again and again.

I hope that helped.

[ANDREW]
You know, what I realized is the water here actually does not get that cold. Because, I mean, I usually practice out in the Sound, but recently I've been practicing in some mountain lakes. That is really cold.

Yeah. After like a handful of rolls, you just get this ice cream headache. I didn't realize how difficult that can be.

And I imagine the water in Greenland is like that.

[DUBSIDE]
You might want to go practice some more in those because when you get to Greenland, that's how cold it's going to be.

[ANDREW]
Yeah. I mean, it's like, how can people do that for like half an hour in that kind of water? And I've been watching some of these videos.

[DUBSIDE]
Like I've said before, the first one's not that bad. The second one feels really cold. The third one, you're like, I'm not going to do this anymore.

If you can keep pushing past that by about the 10th roll, when you get to maybe the spine roll, your face and hands are numb by then. So, you pretty much got it worked out. Now, still, the longer you stay under for each roll, every extra, you know, 10 milliseconds, it just gives you that much more chance to get your cold.

So, you're trying to roll fast and come up fast. But by, you know, after like 10 or 12 rolls, you pretty much get into a rhythm and you can deal with it until the cold gets into your core after maybe 20 or 30 minutes. Then you got to get off the water before you get hypothermic.

So, you can finish your routine before that. That's why I like to roll, go through it fast.

Don't take time between the rolls. You just get more cold. But, you know, after half an hour, it can be just too chilly to deal with it.

But it depends. If it's a warm day with the sun out, you know, every time you come up, you get a little bit, you know, with a black tuiliq going, you get that warmth. But if it's a cold, rainy day, that gets rough.

[ANDREW]
Yeah. So, okay. So, what were you wearing?

I mean, what would you recommend?

[DUBSIDE]
The first year, I had a dry suit with fleece inside the dry suit with a neoprene tulip on top of that.

[ANDREW]
Okay.

[DUBSIDE]
Other years, I've done it in a sealskin tuiliq, which is colder. Then I borrowed somebody else's dry suit, which works okay, you know, various things. But still, I mean, no matter what you wear on your body, your face and your hands, I mean, you can wear gloves, but your face, those first couple rolls, you're going to get it right there.

And that's why you practice in the wintertime in this country. So, you're used to, okay, that super cold thing. And then if you get – if the ice cream headache is really getting to be a problem, you need, like, inside the tuiliq, you need to put in – get a hood or something like that.

Right up there is where it really is sensitive to that. So, the neoprene hood helps right here. And then inside, maybe something else.

But, yeah. I mean, I'll get – I remember last year, I was feeling like just the onset of the ice cream thing. But you come up, you know, you get a few seconds of just equilibrium.

It kicks in. Then you go back down again. And after enough of those, it wasn't too much of a problem for me.

But I wouldn't – if I got a severe ice cream headache, I wouldn't keep rolling while that went on. I can't recommend doing that.

[ANDREW]
I had actually a skull cap, like a helmet liner. And I put that on.

[DUBSIDE]
Inside the tuiliq or just that?

[ANDREW]
Yeah. I tried putting it on inside the tuiliq.

[DUBSIDE]
Yeah, yeah. That's good.

[ANDREW]
But I couldn't get a really good seal anymore. So, like, water was getting in my ear.

[DUBSIDE]
Yeah. Well, getting a really good seal is an elusive goal anyway.

[ANDREW]
Oh, you think so?

[DUBSIDE]
As long as it's not gushing in there. Like, if you make the tuiliq really, really tight, there's a point where tighter doesn't even help. It's just making it tougher in the face.

Like, you just need just that certain amount of tension. And depending on the shape of your face, you know, if it's rushing in right there, then you got to do something about it. But, you know, you're rolling dozens of times.

So, the water is going to get in. It's just as long as it's not, like, sloshing around or getting in your ears, then you're okay.

[ANDREW]
Yeah, yeah. Most important thing is it doesn't get in your ears because then you're going to start to get vertigo.

[DUBSIDE]
Yeah, that's going to be bad.

[ANDREW]
Yeah. And I finally picked up my Khatsalano folder.

[DUBSIDE]
Oh, yeah? Okay. Cool. Have you put it together?

[ANDREW]
Well, I spent an afternoon trying to put it together.

[DUBSIDE]
We should do that on Zoom. I can give you pointers. We can make a podcast out of it.

[ANDREW]
Yeah, it'll be like, I'm telling you, it would be like a long recording.

[DUBSIDE]
Yeah. It's complicated.

[ANDREW]
There are all these different pieces, but I sorted it out and got it together. Unfortunately, the one piece broke. It was the right gunnel extension tube.

[DUBSIDE]
The aluminum piece?

[ANDREW]
Well, the little plastic piece came off.

[DUBSIDE]
Oh, okay.

[ANDREW]
So, I couldn't crank it to expand it anymore.

[DUBSIDE]
So, yeah, it's a special rivet in a rivet gun and drilling out the old rivet. That's how you fix that.

[ANDREW]
Oh, yeah? Okay.

[DUBSIDE]
Yeah.

[ANDREW]
Well, I emailed Doug Simpson from Feathercraft to get a replacement part for that. But, you know, it's kind of a disappointment. I got it pretty much intact, except I couldn't put it out in the water.

But I'll get it figured out pretty soon, I believe. I think it'll be perfect to bring on this trip.

And I ordered a sample for the team jackets.

[DUBSIDE]
All right. What's happening with those?

[ANDREW]
Yeah, I'm excited to get that and check it out. Don't hold your breath. It'll probably take three weeks to get here.

[DUBSIDE]
Just a sample?

[ANDREW]
Well, yeah, just the first one. I want to make sure it's a good quality and I'm happy with it before we finalize it. 

So, what do we got for this week's episode?

[DUBSIDE]
This week we have— Well, I still have stuff I've recorded in Greenland to get to, interviews I did back then. This is, what, seven, eight months ago. So, this week we will hear— There's a guy who I met on the Nuuk team, even though the competition was in Sisimiut, and he turned out to be a veterinarian in his regular job.

And so I talked to him all about his work and his involvement with the qajaq club in Nuuk. And that's what we got for this week.

[ANDREW]
All right, very good. So, we will get to it.
 
[DUBSIDE]
Welcome to the Dubcast with Dubside. This is a special guest edition of the Dubcast. I'll be talking to Asger von Wenck, a Danish veterinarian living and working in Greenland.

I recorded this while the competition was going on, so you'll hear some race noises in the background. We talked about his participation with Qajaq Nuuk, as well as his work treating dogs, including sled dogs. He does mention cats, and we talked about rabies and ticks in Greenland.

Actually, at one point you can hear them singing the Qajaq Song in the background, if you listen carefully enough. I asked him about Greenland independence, food in Greenland. He likes seal liver.

We discussed homeless people in Nuuk, his attempts to learn Greenlandic, and his ability to vote in Greenland. This runs about 30 minutes. 

I'm in Sisimiut, Greenland, talking to Asger, the veterinarian.

You have a last name? 

[ASGER]
Asger von Wenck. 

[DUBSIDE] 
You are Danish?

[ASGER]
I'm Danish, born Danish, yes, and moved to Greenland two years ago. Previously, I've been a teacher at the University of Copenhagen teaching vet students surgery.

[DUBSIDE]
Veterinary surgery?

[ASGER]
Yes, veterinary surgery, and doing all kinds of stuff, prolapse discs, heart surgery, broken...

[DUBSIDE]
On the animals?

[ASGER]
On the animals, yes, dogs and cats mainly.

[DUBSIDE]
So what made you decide to come to Greenland?

[ASGER]
Well, I always wanted to go to Greenland, all my life. My father was here when I was almost not born, so I always had the stories from Greenland in my home, and little figurines and stuff. And I've been traveling here since 2008 a lot of times.

I've been teaching the sledge patrol up north, Sirius. They have a course, a week course of how to do rescue on dogs if they...

[DUBSIDE]
Like the sled dogs? 

[ASGER] 
The sled dogs, yeah.

[DUBSIDE]
 In conditions, out in the field, I guess you said.

[ASGER]
Yes, exactly, because they are going like this four months on a voyage where they patrol the borderline, or the coastline. 

[DUBSIDE] 
Up the northeast? 

[ASGER] 
Up the northeast, in the national park, yeah.

So they got to know a little bit of how to make a little suture and stuff. So they had a little course at the university, and I was part of that, yeah. So I've been here like eight, ten times before I decided to move here.

And I always thought I had a very nice position and, well, how to stop your work and move to a different country, move to a different environment. But then I suddenly was out of work, and I thought, well, now's the time. And I don't regret it.

The only thing I regret is I didn't do it many years before.

[DUBSIDE]
Yeah? Where were you in Denmark before?

[ASGER]
Copenhagen, mainly Copenhagen, yeah. 

[DUBSIDE]
Okay. So, and you got involved in the kayaking a little bit here?

[ASGER]
Yes, that was when moving to, I live in Nuuk right now, and you've got to find new connections and new things to do. So I got involved in, first at kayak polo. So I play polo twice a week.

[DUBSIDE] 
In a pool in Nuuk? 

[ASGER] 
In a pool in Nuuk, yes. And then I got involved with the Qajaq Club building kayaks, which I thought was very fantastic.

That was what tricked me. The thing, the craftsmanship of making from pieces of wood and some rope, and you just, suddenly you've got a kayak.

[DUBSIDE]
Yeah.

[ASGER]
And being an orthopedic surgeon, I think there's a lot of connections there. That's sometimes where you've got to adjust things a bit.

[DUBSIDE]
So you've made a kayak here?

[ASGER]
I actually didn't make my own kayak, but I've been participating in building kayaks with other people, because I really like to learn the skills. And I didn't realize that I would be part of this event here, so I thought, well, it's not for me to build a kayak. The people that are going to participate in the championship, they should be the ones to build.

And we have a limited space, so I thought I'd keep in the background.

[DUBSIDE]
So this is the Qajaq Nuuk Club that you're talking about? 

[ASGER] 
Yes, yes, yes. Peqatigiiffik Qajaq Nuuk.

[DUBSIDE]
Yeah, yeah. All right. And so have you been to a competition before?

[ASGER]
No.

[DUBSIDE]
Okay.

[ASGER]
In running, but never in kayaking. Not in kayaking, yeah.

[DUBSIDE]
I see, I hear they're starting up. Here we are on the scene.

We'll have a little background ambience there. They're starting with the women.

[ASGER]
Now, after this competition, my plans are moving to Ilulissat during the winter. I'll be moving there, so I have to change my club.

[DUBSIDE]
Your club affiliation will switch to Qajaq Ilulissat.

[ASGER]
Yes, exactly. Exactly, so, yeah. And I look forward to that, too.

[DUBSIDE]
All right. Did living here and getting involved in these things, was it different from what you expected at all?

[ASGER]
Well, I think I didn't expect much. I didn't have any expectations, so things kind of just rolled along and I got involved, and I just was happy to see all these things happening. So, no, I really didn't have any expectations.

[DUBSIDE]
How is it living here throughout the year in the wintertime when there's so little sunlight?

[ASGER]
Well, I think it's not a problem. I like the dark evenings. You put a candlelight up, and there's plenty of room for that.

[DUBSIDE]
What's it like by the afternoon? It gets dark until it gets dark.

[ASGER]
It's mainly light from half past 11 to about 2 or 3 o'clock, and then the rest of the time it's dark, but I think it's OK. I feel very comfortable with that.

[DUBSIDE]
And there's snow all over the place.

[ASGER]
I think the first year I was here there was not much snow, but there was a little bit of snow and then rain and then ice and then melting, so it was very icy. I'm 67 now, and I was, well, is that the country for me? Because I was sliding all over.

But this year we had a lot of snow and not so slippery, so I think it's nice. And I guess going to Ilulissat, it's more like, of course it's slippery, but it's not that melting and frosting and melting and frosting, so I think it's, I hope to be all right with that without going to the hospital.

[DUBSIDE]
Yeah, yeah. So I'm interested in the details of the veterinary things. So in Greenland you're mostly doing dogs and anything else?

[ASGER]
I've been living in Nuuk. There is a private vet there which I've been helping a little bit when they're doing surgeries, specialised surgeries, which they're not comfortable with. So I've been helping out there.

There's dogs and cats.

[DUBSIDE]
Nuuk doesn't have sled dogs.

[ASGER]
They don't have sled dogs. When you are going south of Sisimiut and south of Kangerlussuaq, you're not allowed to have sled dogs. And north of Kangerlussuaq and Sisimiut, you're not allowed to have any other dogs.

[DUBSIDE] 
To keep the breed pure. 

[ASGER] 
Exactly. The genetics of the breed is going to be kept pure. And my job at the government is concerning sled dogs.

[DUBSIDE]
Sled dogs.

Are they getting ready to start? 

[ASGER] 
Yeah, I think so. 

[DUBSIDE] 
Well, they just...

[ASGER]
They're putting the kayaks into the water while they're getting started. 

But my job is working for the government and as such I do keep track of the sled dogs, numbers, how they vary.

I am kind of managing the vaccination system here, which all dogs have to be vaccinated against rabies, against canine distemper and against parvovirus. And for the sled dogs, this is paid by the government. Plus they're all gotta be registered by a microchip. This is paid too for the government for sled dogs.

[DUBSIDE]
Every dog has a microchip?

[ASGER]
Every dog in Greenland has to be vaccinated against those diseases.

[DUBSIDE]
Sled dogs and the dogs in the south? Everything?

[ASGER]
All dogs has to be vaccinated, yes. But the government pays for the sled dogs.

[DUBSIDE]
Okay.

[ASGER]
And then they're going to be registered in a national database so we can keep track of which dogs are vaccinated and which are not.

[DUBSIDE]
Have there been outbreaks of rabies in Greenland?

[ASGER]
No. But a lot of the polar foxes are... I think one survey once discovered that approximately 10% of the polar foxes carry rabies.

And therefore rabies is a problem once in a while. As I recall, I was told that the last human outbreak of rabies was in 1965 or something like that. So it's not a big problem for humans. But I regularly get information that dogs have been bitten by potentially rabid foxes. And then we wall off the area and vaccinate all the dogs again to be certain and do all the precautions to avoid that this disease hit people.

[DUBSIDE]
How bad are ticks in Greenland?

[ASGER]
Ticks are not existent in Greenland. 

[DUBSIDE] 
Really? 

[ASGER] 
Yes.

[DUBSIDE]
I guess I can walk through the grass more often.

[ASGER]
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No problem here because of the climate. Although I just found a tick in Nuuk a couple of months ago. But I think this was a totally special case because people have been traveling to Germany. And one of them found a tick on themselves. And then they might have brought one to Greenland and they found it on the cat.

But I think as I know it... 

[DUBSIDE]
Well, with more tourism, can that last?

[ASGER]
And climate changes. These things may make it possible for ticks to get into Greenland. But I think right now they can't survive.

[DUBSIDE]
All right. So what is a typical injury for a dog that you come across? 

[ASGER] 
Bite wounds.

[DUBSIDE] 
Bite wounds from other dogs?

[ASGER]
Yeah. And then they have a lot of dental problems because of food being on the ground. And there's a lot of gravel and stuff. And the dogs are just eating. And they chew on small rocks. So they got a lot of dental problems and they got a lot of bite wounds.

And then, of course, we got outbreaks of infections sometimes when puppies haven't been vaccinated yet. Parvovirus is a once-in-a-while problem.

[DUBSIDE]
Yeah. All right. I wanted to ask you about the whole issue of Greenland independence.

[ASGER]
Yes.

[DUBSIDE]
As a Danish person, how do you feel about that?

[ASGER]
Well, I must say that everything I say from now on and has been all the way is as a private person because I work for the government, so I don't represent the government in what I'm saying. Well, I think that what we see right now is a kind of togetherness between Denmark and Greenland, which I think is nice and is good.

[DUBSIDE]
In the last six months?

[ASGER]
Yeah, I think so. I think that there has been some interest in Greenland from outside.

[DUBSIDE]
Shall we say?

[ASGER]
Yeah, from the United States. And this interest has been kind of a little demanding. And on that background, I think that Greenland and Denmark has moved closer together.

And I think that's a nice thing. And I think especially that Denmark has opened their eyes that if we want to have a cooperation, we've got to give something.

[DUBSIDE]
And it was a bit different before that, like a few years ago.

[ASGER]
I think that Denmark wasn't that alert of the needs in Greenland as they have become now. So I think it's a good thing.

[DUBSIDE]
Tell me about your experiences with Greenlandic food.

[ASGER]
Well, I must say I'm a little picky with what I eat. But I thought when moving to Greenland, I had to eat what is presented here. And I do.

And I think the first thing I had was raw, warm seal liver just from a freshly caught seal on a national day. 

[DUBSIDE] 
How was that? 

[ASGER] 
I was amazed. I don't eat liver from cows or calves. And this, I was a little curious, but it was sweet and it was nice. And I actually liked it.

So that's part of my life now. Whenever I meet a seal that's been freshly killed, I like to taste some of the liver. And I like the mattak, I like it a lot. The whale skin.

[DUBSIDE]
How about seals, the seal meat?

[ASGER]
The seal meat, I think in the beginning I had a little difficulty in that. It's got a special taste, but I'm getting used to it now. I do some work with homeless people where we cook meals from them once a week in Nuuk.

And very often we make what's called puisi suaasat, which is seal soup. So I get it more and more. I think maybe half a year, I'll have a craving for it.

[DUBSIDE]
Have you tried muskox?

[ASGER]
Yes, I tried that too. And reindeer, I'm very happy for reindeer. I think it's so nice.

[DUBSIDE]
How about the lamb?

[ASGER]
Well, that's nice too. The Greenlandic lamb is very nice. But that's taste which I'm used to, grown up with.

I'm not grown up with...

[DUBSIDE]
But they say the Greenlandic lamb has a very distinct taste, different from lamb you get anywhere else.

[ASGER]
I just think it's nice. I haven't discovered that difference. Maybe it's a little less woolly tasting.

[DUBSIDE]
Because the only vegetation they have to graze on is the stuff that grows in Greenland.

[ASGER]
Yes, but I think they have some food apart from that because it's difficult to have lamb and sheep just on the food which are available in Greenland.

[DUBSIDE]
Looks like they're getting ready to start this race.

[ASGER]
Yeah.

[DUBSIDE]
Let me just catch some of this.

[ASGER]
Just shoot a pig while we're waiting. Yeah.

[DUBSIDE]
So this is the women's portage race getting started.

[ASGER]
Actually this white kayak with the black spots, that's one of the kayaks I participate in.

[DUBSIDE]
Yeah?

[ASGER]
Was he disqualified?

[DUBSIDE]
Maybe they were over the line when they started.

[ASGER]
Yeah, I don't know what happened. If he was too far in advance and had to be a penalty, I'm not aware. I guess if he was totally disqualified he would turn his kayak and go back.

[DUBSIDE]
I guess they had to restart. 

[ASGER] 
Yeah. 

[DUBSIDE] 
So you mentioned homeless people in Nuuk.

[ASGER] Yeah.

[DUBSIDE] 
How does that work?

[ASGER]
Well, it works like... I think that I have plenty and there's a lot of people that doesn't have much.

[DUBSIDE]
But in a state like Greenland, like the welfare system kind of a thing, there's still people that don't have a place to live?

[ASGER]
There are people who doesn't have a place to live, yeah. Or don't have a place to live. A lot of people sleep on each other's couches and in, well, I think in staircases.

Some of the persons are living in tents all year round in 18 degrees minus Celsius. So tough, tough people. I think it's very little I do.

Maybe actually just kind of brushing off my consciousness. But I think it's something I can do. It's helping with that.

[DUBSIDE]
There aren't other programs?

[ASGER]
It is a program of a private corporation which I'm just part of. And there are, of course, government programs too and people have funding or what you call it, have help. But I think that still we can help with a good solid meal once a week.

[DUBSIDE]
How much Greenlandic have you picked up?

[ASGER]
Well, I'm really sorry you asked that. I try to learn as much as I can. And I'm 67 and, well, it's a little chalky up in the main department.

So it's difficult to remember all the pronunciations because it's very different from what I've been raised with. And then words are kind of sentences. So you build up sentences in one word.

And that's a difficult thing. I think I've learned a lot of words. I would call it an advanced tourist language.

But making sentences is really hard.

[DUBSIDE]
I can agree with that.

[ASGER] 
But that's part of my voyage, my life journey here in Greenland. That is to learn the language. And that's part of the reason for me moving to Ilulissat.

[DUBSIDE]
I've been trying for a long time. But I would do better if I stayed here longer rather than just coming for a few weeks in the summer.

[ASGER]
Exactly. And then staying in Nuuk where everybody speaks Danish.

[DUBSIDE]
I'm told that if you're not out in the far villages and if you're Danish, trying to speak Greenlandic…it is just so tempting to just go to Danish and speak that way to a Greenland person because then you actually can communicate rather than try...

[ASGER]
Exactly. And the Greenlandic people are so well-spoken. A lot of Greenlandic people are so well-spoken, well-actioned.

What do you call it? They speak Danish very well.

The children now have started not so much to speak Danish because they... I do understand them. What's the purpose of that?

If they speak English, which they learn from YouTube and all kind of TikTok and places, they can communicate in Denmark.

[DUBSIDE]
They've started to prioritize English over Danish.

[ASGER]
Yes.That's my impression. And I do understand them because they can communicate in Denmark in English. They can communicate in most of the world in English.

So why learn Danish? Doesn't really make sense.

[DUBSIDE]
So what's your take on Greenland being completely independent from Denmark?

[ASGER]
I am... If that's what the Greenland people want, I think it's their issue. 

I have a right to vote. I voted at the election, both the municipality and the government.

[DUBSIDE]
How does that work?

[ASGER]
It works like if you're from Denmark and you live... I don't know if it goes for other countries too, but from Denmark, living here for six months, then you have a right to vote here.

[DUBSIDE]
Okay. Who did you vote for in the last election?

[ASGER]
Well, I think  that's … Well, I don't know, but I voted for something in the middle.

[DUBSIDE]
Okay.

[ASGER]
And, yeah. But at the same time, I've lost my right to vote in Denmark.

[DUBSIDE]
Oh, yeah?

[ASGER]
Which is totally okay, yeah. I don't think I'm going to move any other places.

[DUBSIDE]
All right.

[ASGER]
They can put me into the sea when I'm gone.

[DUBSIDE]
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was at the airport coming to... Let's see. From Nuuk to Sisimiut.

[ASGER]
Yeah.

[DUBSIDE]
And the main line now, it's the big international airport, and they're all set up for that sort of thing. Two spaces ahead of me in the line was this woman who I thought was familiar. I looked at her closely, and I said, that must be Aleqa Hammond.

[ASGER]
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[DUBSIDE]
And it was.

[ASGER]
Yeah, yeah.

[DUBSIDE]
So in Greenland, even if you're the former prime minister, you have to wait in line at the airport like everybody else.

[ASGER]
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think so. Maybe if you're the present prime minister, I think you'll go out.

[DUBSIDE]
I would think you'd have a little bit more in.

[ASGER]
Yeah, I think so, yeah.

[DUBSIDE]
Air Greenland is owned by... 100% owned by...

[ASGER]
By the government. Yeah, yeah.

But flying here, well, she's a politician, but when I went here, my first moving here, I went on a plane with one of the politicians sitting in the Danish government for the Greenland government.

So, yeah. Everybody's going to travel together in the same way, yeah.

[DUBSIDE]
You've taken the ferry?

[ASGER]
Yes, I did, from Nuuk to Qeqertarsuatsiaat, which is, I don't know, a couple of hundred kilometres south of Nuuk. Yeah. I do teaching of...

One of my jobs here is that we don't have vets along the coastline, so all these vaccinations has to be performed of people from technical department. So I travel a lot in Greenland and teach those people how to vaccinate a dog, how to insert a microchip, which diseases they... how to be alert and how to be alert of animal welfare problems, because I don't have eyes out along the coastline.

So we have people from the technical department in the different municipalities and different cities, which report when they see something that's not okay or which performs daily practices with the dogs.

[DUBSIDE]
The idea of a microchip in every dog, I've never heard of that in like the US. Is it unique in Greenland?

[ASGER]
No, I think in Denmark you have whenever... All dogs, more than four months, has to have a microchip. So that's kind of a way of tracking how many dogs.

And I think that's in the EU too, because when you travel with your dogs from one country to another, you've got to have an EU passport for your dog or cat. And you've got to have it registered and you've got to have rabies vaccinated. 

That's...These two things is an issue. So I guess in all of EU, you have to have a microchip at least if you want to travel with your dog.

But in Denmark, you've got to have a microchip in all dogs more than four months. And here in Greenland, you've got to actually have a microchip according to the legislation before or at the same time as the first vaccination. And the first vaccination is three months.

So actually, it's more strict here.

[DUBSIDE]
Right. There are some cats in Greenland? 

[ASGER] 
If there are cats in Greenland? Yes, there are actually. And I'm amazed of how many cats. Up north too, there are cats.

[DUBSIDE]
Because cats don't really do naturally in the Arctic. Not really.

[ASGER]
And not all people are very happy for the cats. Some people think it's a kind of a trespass, or what you call it.

[DUBSIDE]
What do you mean? Like cruel to the cat?

[ASGER]
I don't know, not in that way, but they think the cats shouldn't be.

[DUBSIDE]
Oh, like cruel to the Arctic to import these animals?

[ASGER]
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but I think there are quite some cats. Yeah, and they have to be vaccinated against rabies too.

And then another thing, maybe that's interesting to know, that the government has made a telemedicine solution for the sled dogs. 

[ASGER] 
Oh, it's the times in there, yeah. 

[DUBSIDE] 
A telemedicine, what did you say?

[ASGER] 
Yeah, yeah, the government has made a, as having no vets along the coastline, the government has made a medicine, kind of the televet, so you can call or email and with pictures of the problems you have with your sled dogs, and then we might decide what disease it is, and then we can prescribe, send a prescription to the local pharmacy at the hospital, and then people can collect the medicine. They have to pay for this, for the medicine, but the rest of the arrangement is for free.

[DUBSIDE]
All right, yeah, very good. Well, I think that'll do for now.

[ASGER]
Wrap up, or if you've got any further things, you're welcome.

[DUBSIDE]
And there you have Asger, he spells it A-S-G-E-R, although I was pronouncing it “Oscar” while I was there, but Asger von Wenck. And I'll have to try seal liver, haven't done that before. Despite his assurances about ticks in Greenland, I'm still going to take all my usual precautions.

I did learn since then that it is commonplace in the U.S. to put microchips into pets. Didn't know that at the time. This interview was recorded Wednesday, July 16th, 2025, in Sisimiut, Greenland.

Thank you for listening to the Dubcast with Dubside.