According to a May 28 report by the UK’s Daily Mail, Whisper, a 4-year-old Australian cattle dog, recently soared through the skies with its owner, becoming the world’s first dog to complete an extreme skydive.
This extreme skydive was initiated by Adidas. The uploaded video shows the owner, Dean Potter, strapping Whisper tightly into a backpack, leaving only its head exposed. Then, wearing a wingsuit, Potter—backpack with the dog on his back—plunged from the Eiger Mountain in Switzerland, which stands 3,968 meters above sea level. After flying for some time, Potter opened the parachute. In the end, Potter and his dog Whisper landed safely on the ground.
To capture Whisper’s expressions, Potter also installed a rear-facing camera on his helmet. The dog, wearing goggles, appeared quite relaxed. Upon landing, Whisper seemed very happy, jumping around and wagging its tail nonstop.
Potter also said: "We travel all over the place. Whisper completed its first ascent of the Alps this year, climbing various peaks in the Swiss Alps, including the Eiger and the Jungfrau. Many times, it climbed on its own—like navigating rock clefts, snow lines, and scaling vertical rocks and ice."
Although Potter has received many positive responses for taking his pet dog on adventures, many others have expressed concern about the dog’s safety. A spokesperson for the UK’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) stated: "Although both the man and the dog landed safely, strapping a dog to a person’s back and parachuting down can still cause great stress and fear for the dog."