S
Hello,
Someone on the list wrote that the Iditarod is "cool." It's not. The
Iditarod has a long,
well-documented history of dog deaths, illnesses and injuries.
In the Iditarod, dogs are forced to run 1,150 miles, which is the
approximate distance between Detroit and Miami, Florida, over a
grueling terrain in 8 to 15 days. Dog deaths and injuries are common in
the race. USA Today sports columnist Jon Saraceno called the Iditarod
"a travesty of grueling proportions" and "Ihurtadog." Fox sportscaster
Jim Rome called it "I-killed-a-dog." Orlando Sentinel sports columnist
George Diaz said the race is "a barbaric ritual" and "an illegal
sweatshop for dogs." USA Today business columnist Bruce Horovitz said
the race is a "public-relations minefield."
The Sled Dog Action Coalition (SDAC) was founded in 1999 to educate
America about the exploitation of sled dogs in Alaska's annual Iditarod
dog sled race. The SDAC and its efforts to educate people about the
brutalities associated with the Iditarod was profiled in USA Today and
in the Miami Herald. I am emailing copies of these and other articles.
Please visit the SDAC website http://www.helpsleddogs.org to see
pictures, and for more information. Be sure to read the quotes on
http://www.helpsleddogs.org/remarks.htm and on all the quote pages that
link to it. Links can be found in the drop box at the top and at the
bottom of the page. All of the material on the site is true and
verifiable.
Iditarod dogs are simply not the invincible animals race officials
portray. Here's a short list of what happens to the dogs during the
race: death, paralysis, penile frostbite, bleeding ulcers, broken
bones, pneumonia, torn muscles and tendons, diarrhea, vomiting,
hypothermia, fur loss, broken teeth, viral diseases, torn footpads,
ruptured discs, sprains and lung damage.
At least 126 dogs have died in the Iditarod. There is no official count
of dog deaths available for the race's early years. In "WinterDance:
the Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod," a nonfiction book, Gary
Paulsen describes witnessing an Iditarod musher brutally kicking a dog
to death during the race. He wrote, "All the time he was kicking the
dog. Not with the imprecision of anger, the kicks, not kicks to match
his rage but aimed, clinical vicious kicks. Kicks meant to hurt deeply,
to cause serious injury. Kicks meant to kill."
Causes of death have also included strangulation in towlines, internal
hemorrhaging after being gouged by a sled, liver injury, heart failure,
and pneumonia. "Sudden death" and "external myopathy," a fatal
condition in which a dog's muscles and organs deteriorate during
extreme or prolonged exercise, have also occurred. The 1976 Iditarod
winner, Jerry Riley, was accused of striking his dog with a snow hook
(a large, sharp and heavy metal claw). In 1996, one of Rick Swenson's
dogs died while he mushed his team through waist-deep water and ice.
The Iditarod Trail Committee banned both mushers from the race but
later reinstated them. In many states these incidents would be
considered animal cruelty. Swenson is now on the Iditarod Board of
Directors.
In the 2001 Iditarod, a sick dog was sent to a prison to be cared for
by inmates and received no veterinary care. He was chained up in the
cold and died. Another dog died by suffocating on his own vomit.
No one knows how many dogs die in training or after the race each year.
On average, 53 percent of the dogs who start the race do not make it
across the finish line. According to a report published in the American
Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, of those who do
cross, 81 percent have lung damage. A report published in the Journal
of Veterinary Internal Medicine said that 61 percent of the dogs who
finish the Iditarod have ulcers versus zero percent pre-race.
Tom Classen, retired Air Force colonel and Alaskan resident for over 40
years, tells us that the dogs are beaten into submission:
"They've had the hell beaten out of them." "You don't just whisper into
their ears, 'OK, stand there until I tell you to run like the devil.'
They understand one thing: a beating. These dogs are beaten into
submission the same way elephants are trained for a circus. The mushers
will deny it. And you know what? They are all lying." -USA Today, March
3, 2000 in Jon Saraceno's column
Beatings and whippings are common. Jim Welch says in his book Speed
Mushing Manual, "I heard one highly respected [sled dog] driver once
state that "'Alaskans like the kind of dog they can beat on.'"
"Nagging a dog team is cruel and ineffective...A training device such
as a whip is not cruel at all but is effective." "It is a common
training device in use among dog mushers...A whip is a very humane
training tool."
Mushers believe in "culling" or killing unwanted dogs, including
puppies. Many dogs who are permanently disabled in the Iditarod, or who
are unwanted for any reason, are killed with a shot to the head,
dragged or clubbed to death. "On-going cruelty is the law of many dog
lots. Dogs are clubbed with baseball bats and if they don't pull are
dragged to death in harnesses....." wrote Alaskan Mike Cranford in an
article for Alaska's Bush Blade Newspaper (March, 2000).
Jon Saraceno wrote in his March 3, 2000 column in USA Today, "He
[Colonel Tom Classen] confirmed dog beatings and far worse. Like
starving dogs to maintain their most advantageous racing weight.
Skinning them to make mittens. Or dragging them to their death."
Iditarod administrators promote the race as a commemoration of sled
dogs saving the children of Nome by bringing diphtheria serum from
Anchorage in 1925. However, the co-founder of the Iditarod, Dorothy
Page, said the race was not established to honor the sled drivers and
dogs who carried the serum. In fact, 600 miles of this serum run was
done by train and the other half was done by dogs running in relays,
with no dog running over 100 miles. This isn't anything like the
Iditarod.
The race has led to the proliferation of horrific dog kennels in which
the dogs are treated very cruelly. Many kennels have over 100 dogs and
some have as many as 200. It is standard for the dogs to spend their
entire lives outside tethered to metal chains that can be as short as
four feet long. In 1997 the United States Department of Agriculture
determined that the tethering of dogs was inhumane and not in the
animals' best interests. The chaining of dogs as a primary means of
enclosure is prohibited in all cases where federal law applies. A dog
who is permanently tethered is forced to urinate and defecate where he
sleeps, which conflicts with his natural instinct to eliminate away
from his living area.
Iditarod dogs are prisoners of abuse.
Margery Glickman
Director
Sled Dog Action Coalition, http://www.helpsleddogs.org
Someone on the list wrote that the Iditarod is "cool." It's not. The
Iditarod has a long,
well-documented history of dog deaths, illnesses and injuries.
In the Iditarod, dogs are forced to run 1,150 miles, which is the
approximate distance between Detroit and Miami, Florida, over a
grueling terrain in 8 to 15 days. Dog deaths and injuries are common in
the race. USA Today sports columnist Jon Saraceno called the Iditarod
"a travesty of grueling proportions" and "Ihurtadog." Fox sportscaster
Jim Rome called it "I-killed-a-dog." Orlando Sentinel sports columnist
George Diaz said the race is "a barbaric ritual" and "an illegal
sweatshop for dogs." USA Today business columnist Bruce Horovitz said
the race is a "public-relations minefield."
The Sled Dog Action Coalition (SDAC) was founded in 1999 to educate
America about the exploitation of sled dogs in Alaska's annual Iditarod
dog sled race. The SDAC and its efforts to educate people about the
brutalities associated with the Iditarod was profiled in USA Today and
in the Miami Herald. I am emailing copies of these and other articles.
Please visit the SDAC website http://www.helpsleddogs.org to see
pictures, and for more information. Be sure to read the quotes on
http://www.helpsleddogs.org/remarks.htm and on all the quote pages that
link to it. Links can be found in the drop box at the top and at the
bottom of the page. All of the material on the site is true and
verifiable.
Iditarod dogs are simply not the invincible animals race officials
portray. Here's a short list of what happens to the dogs during the
race: death, paralysis, penile frostbite, bleeding ulcers, broken
bones, pneumonia, torn muscles and tendons, diarrhea, vomiting,
hypothermia, fur loss, broken teeth, viral diseases, torn footpads,
ruptured discs, sprains and lung damage.
At least 126 dogs have died in the Iditarod. There is no official count
of dog deaths available for the race's early years. In "WinterDance:
the Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod," a nonfiction book, Gary
Paulsen describes witnessing an Iditarod musher brutally kicking a dog
to death during the race. He wrote, "All the time he was kicking the
dog. Not with the imprecision of anger, the kicks, not kicks to match
his rage but aimed, clinical vicious kicks. Kicks meant to hurt deeply,
to cause serious injury. Kicks meant to kill."
Causes of death have also included strangulation in towlines, internal
hemorrhaging after being gouged by a sled, liver injury, heart failure,
and pneumonia. "Sudden death" and "external myopathy," a fatal
condition in which a dog's muscles and organs deteriorate during
extreme or prolonged exercise, have also occurred. The 1976 Iditarod
winner, Jerry Riley, was accused of striking his dog with a snow hook
(a large, sharp and heavy metal claw). In 1996, one of Rick Swenson's
dogs died while he mushed his team through waist-deep water and ice.
The Iditarod Trail Committee banned both mushers from the race but
later reinstated them. In many states these incidents would be
considered animal cruelty. Swenson is now on the Iditarod Board of
Directors.
In the 2001 Iditarod, a sick dog was sent to a prison to be cared for
by inmates and received no veterinary care. He was chained up in the
cold and died. Another dog died by suffocating on his own vomit.
No one knows how many dogs die in training or after the race each year.
On average, 53 percent of the dogs who start the race do not make it
across the finish line. According to a report published in the American
Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, of those who do
cross, 81 percent have lung damage. A report published in the Journal
of Veterinary Internal Medicine said that 61 percent of the dogs who
finish the Iditarod have ulcers versus zero percent pre-race.
Tom Classen, retired Air Force colonel and Alaskan resident for over 40
years, tells us that the dogs are beaten into submission:
"They've had the hell beaten out of them." "You don't just whisper into
their ears, 'OK, stand there until I tell you to run like the devil.'
They understand one thing: a beating. These dogs are beaten into
submission the same way elephants are trained for a circus. The mushers
will deny it. And you know what? They are all lying." -USA Today, March
3, 2000 in Jon Saraceno's column
Beatings and whippings are common. Jim Welch says in his book Speed
Mushing Manual, "I heard one highly respected [sled dog] driver once
state that "'Alaskans like the kind of dog they can beat on.'"
"Nagging a dog team is cruel and ineffective...A training device such
as a whip is not cruel at all but is effective." "It is a common
training device in use among dog mushers...A whip is a very humane
training tool."
Mushers believe in "culling" or killing unwanted dogs, including
puppies. Many dogs who are permanently disabled in the Iditarod, or who
are unwanted for any reason, are killed with a shot to the head,
dragged or clubbed to death. "On-going cruelty is the law of many dog
lots. Dogs are clubbed with baseball bats and if they don't pull are
dragged to death in harnesses....." wrote Alaskan Mike Cranford in an
article for Alaska's Bush Blade Newspaper (March, 2000).
Jon Saraceno wrote in his March 3, 2000 column in USA Today, "He
[Colonel Tom Classen] confirmed dog beatings and far worse. Like
starving dogs to maintain their most advantageous racing weight.
Skinning them to make mittens. Or dragging them to their death."
Iditarod administrators promote the race as a commemoration of sled
dogs saving the children of Nome by bringing diphtheria serum from
Anchorage in 1925. However, the co-founder of the Iditarod, Dorothy
Page, said the race was not established to honor the sled drivers and
dogs who carried the serum. In fact, 600 miles of this serum run was
done by train and the other half was done by dogs running in relays,
with no dog running over 100 miles. This isn't anything like the
Iditarod.
The race has led to the proliferation of horrific dog kennels in which
the dogs are treated very cruelly. Many kennels have over 100 dogs and
some have as many as 200. It is standard for the dogs to spend their
entire lives outside tethered to metal chains that can be as short as
four feet long. In 1997 the United States Department of Agriculture
determined that the tethering of dogs was inhumane and not in the
animals' best interests. The chaining of dogs as a primary means of
enclosure is prohibited in all cases where federal law applies. A dog
who is permanently tethered is forced to urinate and defecate where he
sleeps, which conflicts with his natural instinct to eliminate away
from his living area.
Iditarod dogs are prisoners of abuse.
Margery Glickman
Director
Sled Dog Action Coalition, http://www.helpsleddogs.org
