Iditarod winners

For the dogs, the Iditarod is a bottomless pit of suffering. What happens to the dogs during the Iditarod includes death, paralysis, frostbite (where it hurts the most!), bleeding ulcers, bloody diarrhea, lung damage, pneumonia, ruptured discs, viral diseases, broken bones, torn muscles and tendons and sprains. At least 139 dogs have died in the race. No one knows how many dogs die after this tortuous ordeal or during training. For more facts about the Iditarod, visit the Sled Dog Action Coalition website, http://www.helpsleddogs.org .

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 finish, 81 percent have lung damage. A report published in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine said that 61 percent of the dogs who complete the Iditarod have ulcers versus zero percent pre-race.

Iditarod dog kennels are puppy mills. Mushers breed large numbers of dogs and routinely kill unwanted ones, including puppies. Many dogs who are permanently disabled in the Iditarod, or who are unwanted for any reason, including those who have outlived their usefulness, are killed with a shot to the head,dragged, drowned or clubbed to death. "Dogs are clubbed with baseball bats and if they don't pull are dragged to death in harnesses......" wrote former Iditarod dog handler Mike Cranford in an article for Alaska's Bush Blade Newspaper.

Dog beatings and whippings are common. During the 2007 Iditarod, eyewitnesses reported that musher Ramy Brooks kicked, punched and beat his dogs with a ski pole and a chain. Jim Welch says in his book Speed Mushing Manual, "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..."

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."

During the race, veterinarians do not give the dogs physical exams at every checkpoint. Mushers speed through many checkpoints, so the dogs get the briefest visual checks, if that. Instead of pulling sick dogs from the race, veterinarians frequently give them massive doses of antibiotics to keep them running.

Most Iditarod dogs are forced to live at the end of a chain when they aren't hauling people around. It has been reported that dogs who don't make the main team are never taken off-chain. Chained dogs have been attacked by wolves,
bears and other animals. Old and arthritic dogs suffer terrible pain in the blistering cold.

Margery Glickman
Director
Sled Dog Action Coalition, http://www.helpsleddogs.org

For a couple of years my youngest son lived in Alaska at a very remote lodge where people from all over the world came to hunt and climb mountains. The the owners of the lodge kept their former Iditarod sled dogs there. Part of my son's job was to take care of the dogs.

Some of them were chained a large part of the time, but he took most of them off for exercise every day---at least the ones that could be taken off. There were one or two that had been permanently damaged by the race. He said they acted a bit crazy and unpredictable, and if unchained they would most likely have run off into the woods and died, so he had to be careful around those.

He sent me pictures of him hiking in the woods together with the pack. But he said he did have to watch them carefully, especially when on the chain; wolves and bears were a threat periodically. He always carried a gun for that reason.

From what he said, I know that the race is extremely hard on the dogs. Many don't make it at all, and the ones that do are often damaged permanently.

Although I am thankful that there are people who are humane enough to provide a home and care for the dogs after the race, one has to wonder if all the damage is really worth it.

I'm very distrubed by these articles about these wonderful dogs. We live in Atlanta and my wife and I have been to Alaska and visited the Iditarod HQ in Wasilla. We've had the pleasure of living with three Malamutes here in Atlanta. Not the ideal place due to the heat but they were well taken care of. Maybe a program like Frontline, 60 Minutes or Dateline should present
a show regarding these tragedies. Also, your governor is a b---h! She has a horrible enviromental record. My wife and I are boycotting a return to Alaska until the slaughter of wolves from helicopters and airplanes stops! We cancelled our planned trip this year to the Canadian Maritimes due to the continuing brutal slaughter of baby seals. This year, maybe 200,000 will be killed for their pelts! Thanks for your work...Tom & Sondra Wright, Tucker, GA